Destroy The Victim Mindset, Build Generational Success, And BE A LEADER Feat. Jeezy

BREAK FREE AND LEAD YOUR LIFE! Are you ready to dismantle the victim mindset and step into your full potential as a leader? In this transformative Mashup episode, I sat down with an incredible lineup of voices who’ve faced extraordinary challenges and emerged as leaders in their own right. Together, we explore what it takes to lead yourself, your family, and your community—no matter where you’re starting from. Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins opens up about his journey from survival to self-realization, sharing how he overcame trauma and self-doubt to become a generational example of resilience. He dives into the mindset shift that helped him escape cycles of violence, build generational success, and inspire others to dream bigger than their circumstances. His candor about self-soothing through destructive habits—and his decision to choose healing instead—is a lesson in personal responsibility and leadership. Les Brown, a living legend in personal development, reminds us of the power of forgiveness and how anger can cloud our decisions. His story of facing deep pain and turning it into a legacy of inspiration will give you chills. He challenges us to confront our darkest emotions and use them as a stepping stone to greatness. From a different perspective, Maria Shriver highlights the challenge of carving your identity in a family of legacy-makers. Her insights into earning self-confidence, embracing vulnerability, and redefining feminine strength will resonate with anyone striving to make their mark without losing their authenticity. Lastly, Damon West takes us into his rock-bottom moment—being sentenced to 65 years in prison—and the resilience it took to rebuild his life. His story is a reminder that your circumstances don’t define you, but your response to them does. Damon’s transformation from convicted felon to a sought-after speaker proves the power of discipline, self-awareness, and purpose. Key Takeaways: - The importance of healing from trauma and leading with humility and vision to inspire generational change. - Why forgiveness—of others and yourself—is critical to unlocking your potential and moving forward. - Balancing toughness and tenderness to find your true voice, even in the shadows of giants. - How to turn life’s harshest lessons into tools for rebuilding a life of purpose and integrity. This episode isn’t just about advice—it’s a call to action. You’ll learn what it means to lead your life with clarity, courage, and a commitment to others. Whether you’re battling self-doubt, generational limitations, or the need to reinvent yourself, the wisdom shared here will guide you to become the leader you were meant to be. Tune in now and take that first step toward building your legacy. Thank you for watching this video—Please Share it and get the word out! What part of this video resonated with you the most? Comment below! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Ed Mylett?

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• 0:45Ed Mylett?

  So go over there and get signed up. You're going to get a free, tuition-free voucher to go to an event with Brendan and myself and a bunch of other influencers as well. So you get a free event out of it also. So go to growthday.com/ed. That's growthday.com/ed. I hear so many small business owners say the exact same thing. They just never have enough time in the day. Well, I measure time differently. I've compressed, condensed, heck, I've bent time. My first day is 6:00 a.m. to noon. My second day starts at noon and goes till 6:00 p.m. And my third day, 6:00 p.m. to midnight. I now get 21 days a week. Stack that up over a month, over a year, over five years, and my life's completely different than it would have been otherwise. And if you want to win as an entrepreneur, you have to compress your time too.

• 1:30Ed Mylett?

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• 2:08Speaker 01

  This is the Ed Mylett Show.

• 2:13Ed Mylett?

  Hey, everyone. Welcome to my weekend special. I hope you enjoy the show. Be sure to follow the Ed Mylett Show on Apple and Spotify. Links are in the show notes. You'll never miss an episode that way. I've been talking to this man about having him on the show here for, I don't know, like, six or eight months. And you would think, well, you want to have him on because he's this, you know, Grammy nominated artist that everybody knows. And it's not really why I wanted him on. I wanted him on because this man has dimension and depth. He's a really unique person because he's obviously very talented, sold millions and millions of records. But he's got this dimension and depth because of his life experience and because of his work on himself and personal development. He's also got a book out called Adversity for Sale, and it's really, really good. I read the entire thing in two days. So, Jeezy J Jenkins, welcome to the show.

• 2:58Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  What's up? How you doing, my brother?

• 3:00Ed Mylett?

  What makes someone become a leader in the streets? So, I get that you function. Because so far, change the word streets and call it business. And guess what?

• 3:10Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  101.

• 3:10Ed Mylett?

  Someone who wins in business has this unbelievable ability to survive

• 3:15Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Correct.

• 3:15Ed Mylett?

  through all of the lean years.

• 3:17Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Correct.

• 3:17Ed Mylett?

  And they have a crazy ability to operate in chaos.

• 3:20Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Yes.

• 3:21Ed Mylett?

  That most people don't have. In fact, I don't have a lot of abilities, but one of the things I always say is, one of the things I hold my hat on is, I operate well in chaos.

• 3:29Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Right.

• 3:30Ed Mylett?

  Now, there's a negative to it, that somehow I keep wanting to produce more chaos in my life because I'm so comfortable in it. By the way, you got a little of that bug too. No matter how things go, I'm gonna find a way to create chaos.

• 3:40Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Because when it gets cool, I'm like, oh.

• 3:41Ed Mylett?

  I'm not comfortable when things are comfortable.

• 3:43Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Right. Because it almost feels like you know when something's gonna come. But to your point, when you ask how do someone become a leader?

• 3:50Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 3:50Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  It's funny, because Master P was in my, he was, he was my therapist before I even knew who he was. Because I listened to him and I watched him and I saw him move. Because you gotta think, coming from where we come from... Those are the only entrepreneurs we really knew. Yeah. That were very successful, you know, all our parents were either hustlers or worked in factories, my mom cleaned houses, you know, you know, just minimum wage stuff, but then you see in Master P and these guys, he's mobilizing all these people and putting them in positions, you know, to, to, you know, live out their dreams. And, and you'd sit back and you go, okay, that's a leader. And then you see someone like Tupac, who's, who's a revolutionary, he's going against the grain of the fabric of what they're telling us

• 4:34Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  where we're from, like you can't be this, you can't do that, he's going against all that grain. And that to me, that's a leader. You know what I'm saying? So these are the people that I'm listening to every day because they're my therapist at this point. Right? So like how people listen to you as a podcast, some people like just to be entertained, but you have some people out there that's listening to your show that are hanging on your every word because they know that you know the way, so they would consider you a leader. And the thing I learned at an early age is I didn't mind sitting down being a fly on the wall, listening to the older guys. You know, the uncles, the cousins, you know, just the guys in the neighborhood. And a lot of my peers didn't see the value in being around older people. It's kind of like, ah, you know, that's your uncle, it's your granddad.

• 5:19Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  But I, you know, older people always had that wisdom and that knowledge. And I had a thirst for it at a young age because

• 5:27Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  when I came back from living abroad,

• 5:31Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  I started, because my palate was different. I was eating sushi. You know what I'm saying? I was tuning to Gary, you know what I'm saying, Yellow Tail. Now they throwing me back in the hood and my palate's different, I done seen the world and it's, you know, I know there's beaches and there's all these things out there and I gotta go back to this town with the population is three thousand, maybe thirty two on a good day. I mean, we got two, two red lights, you know, and, and I'm trying to explain to my friends in, in, in school like, yo, there's beaches out there. There's, you know, there's this and that and everybody's kind of like, what are you talking about? Never seen these things. Right. In person. So it sounded like you was, you know, just making all this up. And I, and I got in my mind. At that moment, I have to get back to that because that's my life.

• 6:15Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  And the reason why that that life was taken away from me is because my parents separated and divorced. My dad was in the service, so my mom went back to the hometown and my dad continued to, you know, um, do his, his, his tour as a, as a staff sergeant in the Marines.

• 6:30Ed Mylett?

  Staff sergeant.

• 6:30Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Yeah, and so when we went back to there, you know, of course, my mom had her things and all that stuff going on. And it's crazy because the trailer that we grew up in was no bigger than the studio room. And it was, I paid thirty five hundred dollars for it, right? And that's what we lived in. You know, and my room was probably, you know, the size of a bathroom in a, in a, like, you know, you can barely even breathe in there, right? And for me, that was reality. So it's like you're taken out of this life where you got all this opportunity and you put in this place. And I'll never forget it, like, my whole mindset switched from being a kid to survival.

• 7:15Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  I gotta survive. I gotta figure this out because if I don't figure it out, this will be my life for the rest of my life.

• 7:22Ed Mylett?

  Unbelievable.

• 7:23Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Right.

• 7:23Ed Mylett?

  This explains to me, I really introduced you the way that I view you. There's a dimension and a depth to you. And now that I'm understanding your life story a little bit more, it's because there was dimension and depth to your early life. Like, you really had two really different lives when you were a very young man. And now you had multiple lives as an adult.

• 7:40Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Right.

• 7:40Ed Mylett?

  The other thing you have, after meeting you, it's the thing that I have in all my friends that I admire the most. And then I'm just unpacking for everyone, success traits. Because I really believe, to a large extent, the streets, so to speak, which I don't understand, that's why I'm asking you, is a metaphor for life. It's just an exaggerated, compressed metaphor. And you have another thing. That I think the guys who make it out and also women and men who make it in business have. You have a very unique nuanced combination of a lot of presence and confidence. With a ton of humility still. You're not arrogant. You don't think you know everything. You have a thirst for knowledge. You listen to my stuff. You read. You still have that thing. That is a combination.

• 8:25Ed Mylett?

  You show me someone with a bunch of humility and they're humble with no confidence, I'm sure you someone life's gonna run their ass over. You show me somebody with a ton of, and you've seen this in your business too. Ton of confidence, but no humility. They eventually believe too much of their own press clippings. You agree with that? They eventually, they crap out because they, they don't have humility. They don't want to keep growing and learning. They think they know everything. They think they're never gonna lose or make a mistake.

• 8:50Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Well, that's, that's the issue because, you know, I've learned and that's one of the reasons why I really wrote the book because I wanted people to understand that. I was selling millions of records, like millions and millions of records, right? Some of the biggest artists in the world, Rihanna, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Mariah Carey, all these different people. But I was at the lowest point of my life. You know what I'm saying? Like I was at the lowest point of my life.

• 9:14Ed Mylett?

  You look at photos, you can kind of tell. Explain.

• 9:18Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Because, you know, God works in mysterious ways. It's just like.

• 9:25Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  He, he helped me figure out that this was the thing for me. I kind of got forced into it because I tried to do what Master P did in the beginning. So I tried to sign people and put people on. I wanted to be the CEO, the boss, so to speak. And it didn't work that way. And I was left with a studio, no artist and, you know, not a lot of money. Right? So I had to figure it out myself and I began to do music myself, but because I always had a love for it. And I started to work my way through that. And what I realized is like.

• 9:57Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  I wanted to bring everybody that I could because that's just what you're told, right? You're told that you got to keep it real, like you gotta be. And that's what I I went by, you know what I'm saying? Because that's what's in my heart to do the right thing. And when I started to get some success in it, and start to move around the world and see different things. Now, mind you, the life that I was living before that was serious, like, serious. What do you mean?

• 10:28Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Put it this way, everybody that I was running with, either got life for thirty years, which was probably one of the biggest stories since, I mean, since El Chapo. And you were waiting to get arrested yourself, right? Yeah. You're like, everyone around me is going down. I was, I was, I was depending on it. Like, I, I had it in my mind. Like, I, I, I got myself, when I walked out the door, Yeah. I made sure that I was looking good, because if I feel like if they got me, I just had to look the part. You gotta think I'm selling a million, millions of records, and I'm waiting to go to prison in my mind. That is crazy to me. And I'm drinking, I'm drinking, I'm self-soothing, I'm doing all these things. And I was like the most depressed I've ever been because a lot of those guys that didn't go, started to see my success.

• 11:14Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  And this caused an all-out war. So you gotta think I'm, I'm this hot new artist, I'm moving around the world, I'm doing all these things. But I'm at a real war with real people that have real finances, real resources, and they're state, the state, this is not local, right? And I'm dealing with this everywhere I go. So normally when a person goes on a stage and performs in front of, you know, you know, I'm, I'm on tour with Jay-Z, you know, we're doing sixty thousand people a night. And he has no idea what I'm dealing with, you know what I'm saying? It's like, I'm like, you know, when I get off the stage, you know, I'm, I'm back in Baghdad. I gotta get ready for whatever, I gotta make sure, like, and I have to move militant, right?

• 11:58Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  So now I gotta make sure, because now instead of just being an artist, I have to be, you know, damn near a general. I have to give my troops orders and tell them how to move and what to do and how to, and it's like, this is every day of my life. You're worried you're gonna be a Tupac, at your point. You're gonna get incarcerated or you're gonna be a Tupac? Yeah, I have to one thousand percent. And the thing, it took me, and I was, I was, I was depressed and didn't. Know what depression was, right?

• 12:24Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 12:24Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  I had post-traumatic stress and didn't understand what that was. I had a level of anxiety that was unreal. I didn't even know what it was. I just knew that all I had to do was keep drinking and keep smoking. And that's how I was gonna deal with this. And you're talking about somebody who was getting up at eight AM. I'm popping a bottle of Cristal. That's how I'm starting breakfast off. You know what I'm saying? By lunchtime, you know, I'm drinking tequila. You know what I'm saying? And, you know, at night, I'm still going out and I'm doing all these things to self-soothe. But I started to realize that, like, I'm running. And I can't, I can't run that fast anymore. Like, I'm, I'm, I'm thinking I'm getting away, but it's catching up. And it wasn't until my third album, which was The Recession, that I woke up and I was just like, hold up. I'm not in prison, right?

• 13:09Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  I'm alive and I got a chance to be a superstar. And let me embrace that. So I immediately went in, started YouTubeing about health. Now I'm drinking water, I'm exercising. And by the, mind you, I couldn't get a trainer, because I, you know, I don't like to be told what to do. So I was, I was taking YouTube myself. And I lost, I lost sixty pounds.

• 13:32Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, we're gonna put a photo up right now for YouTube.

• 13:34Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Yeah, I lost sixty pounds. And, and it was crazy, because I was doing this show for the Recession Tour. The first show I had was in, uh, Boston, in the House of Blues. And, uh, it was funny, because normally when I did all my shows, it would be all, and, and I don't mean this like, you know, like, I mean, like, it was, in my shows, it was the gangsters, killers, and the robbers. That was the front row. It was no women. You know what I'm saying? And when I dropped that sixty pounds ad in my first show in, in Boston, I remember it like it was yesterday. I came out and by the second song, I looked at my security like, yo, what are you doing? They're throwing stuff on the stage. And he looked at me, said, boss, it's bras and panties and stuff. And I was just like, oh.

• 14:18Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  So I'm like, yo, this is different.

• 14:20Ed Mylett?

  That's awesome.

• 14:21Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  And, and I promised myself, like, I wasn't gonna go back. And then I just started to get on this journey of just trying to, like, I did what I did in the neighborhood, which was start to sit around older people, get outside of my comfort zone, and just have conversations with people who... I wouldn't normally have a conversation with.

• 14:39Ed Mylett?

  Yep.

• 14:40Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  And just ask some questions because I started to understand they they wasn't biased, right?

• 14:43Ed Mylett?

  Yep.

• 14:44Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  And they would give me honest answers. And I started my journey to healing around that time. Of course, I didn't have, you know, podcasts like yours and stuff like that, but I just was getting little bits and pieces of information and trying to figure it out, right?

• 14:58Ed Mylett?

  Yep.

• 14:58Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  And that started me on my journey and that's when I started to really come into my stardom and start to understand. But mind you, the whole time I'm doing this, I'm like, okay, this is cool. But I don't think this is a life for me. Like, I gotta figure out how to establish myself as a businessman. Because with this, one thing that I did understand, and I don't think a lot of people understand, is that the music and the reason why rap was one of the biggest genres last year is because music became the streets. Right? And that's why so many people die in it. And that's why so many people incarcerated in it.

• 15:33Ed Mylett?

  Yep.

• 15:33Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Because all the street guys, after me started to figure out Jeezy was in the streets. I know him. I know Lil J. I know he used to be over there. I'm going to do that.

• 15:42Ed Mylett?

  Yep.

• 15:43Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Right? And so everybody started to get in music, music, music. And then you next thing you know, the music was more violent than the streets. But I saw that coming. So I'm like, I gotta figure out how to do business because I don't want to go through this again.

• 15:54Ed Mylett?

  Oh, my gosh. Brother, that that uh

• 15:59Ed Mylett?

  that's striking what you just said.

• 16:00Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Yeah.

• 16:01Ed Mylett?

  Because now that you say it, I've obviously observed that happening, but you to be on the inside of that. I'm picturing you walking out. You're you're touring with Jay-Z in the beginning and you're looking at the front row and you don't know if any of these dudes are there for you.

• 16:12Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Oh, right.

• 16:12Ed Mylett?

  That night. That's amazing to me.

• 16:14Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Right.

• 16:14Ed Mylett?

  And then the fact that dudes like you then brought guys into the business who were already living that type of a life. And it's sort of transformed the industry from guys who talked about this stuff to guys who actually lived this stuff.

• 16:24Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  And this is the trip part. This is where it came in at. I knew early on that I was in a position of leadership. Right? I understood that more so than the artist. That's why I never claimed the rapper role. Like, I was like, I gotta figure out how to do this to be an example for the people that come from where I come from because I'm not gonna stop here. It's like being in the street. You don't want to start, you you know, petty hustling and then now all of a sudden you got this connect and you just stop there. I don't want to go to jail there. You know what I'm saying?

• 16:49Ed Mylett?

  Right.

• 16:49Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  So what what I started to notice is that And even now, you know, the and and the reason why I feel like it's more my purpose and I have to lean into my purpose to show this generation behind me, how do you evolve in it? Because just imagine when I got in, it's just like Jordan versus LeBron. You know, and things like that. You gotta know that the this generation is getting a way different type of money. So that comes with a way different type of power. So they're able to do things that we couldn't even do. And they're able to, you know, to to um like, just say for instance, when you got money to throw around like that, you can make a lot of bad things happen.

• 17:28Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 17:29Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  You feel what I'm saying? And if you if your mind and and if your mindset isn't to lead people the right way, then you already know what that is. And I I and I do wanna say this because I don't wanna sound like that I just had it figured out. Before, everything before the recession album, which was maybe like four years, five years of me doing music, I absolutely led hundreds of men the wrong way.

• 17:54Ed Mylett?

  Right.

• 17:54Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Right? They would do anything for me, right? They would jump off a cliff. They would do anything. And I was out of control and I didn't know where I was going. My GPS was not working. So I led them to where I started to figure out if we keep going straight, we're gonna fall off a cliff.

• 18:12Ed Mylett?

  Gosh.

• 18:12Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  So let me figure out my life. Now, mind you, when I started to figure out certain things about myself and start to change things about myself, I don't think everybody around me was a fan of that.

• 18:23Ed Mylett?

  Sure.

• 18:24Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  You know what I'm saying?

• 18:25Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, cuz people probably benefit from some of it, right? The other thing too is that I just wanna acknowledge one thing about you. It takes a lot of, I mean, it sounds like an overhyped word, but like it takes a lot of courage to say what you're saying. To decide to make these decisions cuz you could have continued to go down. It's hard to change things when the external results of your life are going pretty well.

• 18:44Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Yes.

• 18:44Ed Mylett?

  It's so difficult to do, but. The internal part of your world was terrible. But the external part of your world is going so, it's so, it's so difficult. Listen to me, that are you listen to this, when the external stuff's going well, but internally, you know, this is not right. I'm not happy. I'm not living right. I'm not, this is not my legacy I want to have. It takes major you know what, to go, I'm gonna stop this right now, even though it's producing money, it's producing fame. It's, it's changed a lot of things and sometimes things in life that are working for you, you think, well, that's why I'm successful. But maybe you're successful in spite of some of the things that end up making you win, right? Very short intermission here, folks. I'm glad you're enjoying the show so far.

• 19:28Ed Mylett?

  Don't forget to follow the show on Apple and Spotify. Links are in the show notes. You'll never miss an episode that way. This episode is sponsored by Ro. A lot of people assume GLP-1's cost a fortune, and that assumption keeps them from even looking into treatment. Ro helps people find a more affordable path to FDA-approved GLP-1 treatment. Ro wants to help people lose weight. That's why they have more affordable GLP-1 options, whether you're paying with insurance or cash. Ro's free insurance checker makes it easy to see if you're covered for GLP-1 injections. Just submit your insurance card and Ro handles the rest. No paperwork, no waiting on hold, no confusing phone calls. And if insurance doesn't cover treatment, there are still options. Ro offers the lowest-cost cash-pay FDA-approved GLP-1s,

• 20:14Ed Mylett?

  such as daily pills and multi-dose pens. I use products by Ro, and you should too. Go to ro.co/mylet to see if you qualify. That's R-O dot C-O slash my let to get started on Ro. For side effects of GLP-1 medications, including boxed warning, go to ro.co/safety. ro.co/safety. So when I, when I ended up buying the island, we had to do all of our outdoor decorating, and I spent a fortune in the first half of the place, and I'm like, I don't want to do this anymore, but I want the best stuff. And that's where Wayfair came in. My wife wanted to get this new garden bed, and Wayfair was the place that offered the perfect solution. Wayfair also helps you create a home that stands up to real life with quality products, great value, and trusted reviews. Wayfair verified products are hand

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• 21:36Speaker 03

  Wayfair, every style, every home.

• 21:40Ed Mylett?

  I was thinking about the violence thing you said. A really good friend of mine, um, it's kind of a well-known thing, was renting the house to Pop Smoke when he got killed.

• 21:47Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Yep, yep.

• 21:48Ed Mylett?

  And that he was, they were the owner of the house that he was renting.

• 21:50Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Right.

• 21:51Ed Mylett?

  And I was thinking about when you were just talking about that, how the, the, that industry that you're in still to some extent, like, is really dangerous for these, for these young people still. I mean, it is, it's a real thing. This is not for the cameras, is what you're saying.

• 22:05Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Yeah, so, and social media makes it different because it's, it's easier to track people, it's easier to...

• 22:10Ed Mylett?

  That's exactly what happened in that case.

• 22:12Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Yeah, it's, it's different. And I, I don't, I remember I had a party one time for, for Puff in my, in my, uh, in my, uh, compound in Atlanta, and I didn't even know Papa. He was standing like maybe where you are right there. And when I heard it, it just hit me different because I can only imagine this kid who's getting out of Brooklyn, who's got this chance to start them, and then you die in the hills of LA. Just think about that. It's almost like, it's, it's almost like backwards. You would think you would die where you was at. And the reason why I lean into it so much is because they have to see an example of someone grow up in this. Because when I sit back and I think about Tupac, like, it's confusing because he was before his time, but I can only imagine what he would have been like if he would have still been here and made his 50s or wherever he's at.

• 22:55Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  And I've been one of the lucky ones that, that have... You know, I, I, and I'm not going to try to dumb it down or nothing like what I've been through. I don't think the average man can go through that. You know what I'm saying? And, and not just from the things that I was into, but just all the people that I've lost over the years. I can go into the thousands. You know, peoples, you know, the hundreds of funerals, the, the, just so much. And, and, and what it did to me is, and, and what I've been working through now is, um, and we were talking about Louis earlier. Like me and him, we're really talking about it just like, you know, it, it numbed me like it, it, it, you know, I, I, I couldn't really understand what emotions were. Right?

• 23:37Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Because once you lose people and I talk about in the book a lot, you just get this thing like, well, yeah, it wasn't me. So I gotta keep going because you're running. You're just trying to keep running and staying alive. And over time I just got this thing where I feel like people were complacent. You know what I'm saying? Because it was, I just tried not to get too close.

• 23:56Ed Mylett?

  Yep.

• 23:57Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Or try not to show too much love because it's almost like you just never know, right?

• 24:03Ed Mylett?

  Brother, in a weird way, this conversation's happened at such an interesting time. Without being personal, I will say Andy Frisell is a really good friend of mine.

• 24:12Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Right.

• 24:12Ed Mylett?

  We were talking this weekend about not the same thing, but connected to it. And we're both talking about how even at this stage of our lives, like we're just running and, and we're running and running and running and running. And although not for the same reasons, but all my relationships, I feel like as I'm in the middle of this run, I've just become really surface. There's no depth to my relationships.

• 24:34Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Right.

• 24:34Ed Mylett?

  And it's just like, I'll get around to it. I'll get around to it. I'll get around. We were both saying, hey, man, like we're best friends. We don't even see each other anymore. Like it's on the phone, you all right, bro? You all right, bro? And then like a year goes by.

• 24:43Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Right.

• 24:44Ed Mylett?

  And it's a part of life. Like everyone's got to evaluate in a different way, not the same thing as what you were going through. But like, how much of your life are you putting on hold because you're in this run that maybe like some of these other things may matter more? Your friendships, your relationships, your, the things in your life that matter. You said GPS earlier, you got this thing in, that you write about, about your something GPS.

• 25:02Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  My mental GPS.

• 25:03Ed Mylett?

  This is so good. I know what it is, but I wanted you to be able to say it.

• 25:06Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  In my former job, I've been very successful.

• 25:09Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 25:10Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  And, and, and, and. We call them plays and one play you could be almost you could you could have millions of dollars and in one play you send your money to the wrong place you could be broke again.

• 25:19Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 25:20Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Right and and um I went through that so many times so like having it not having it.

• 25:25Ed Mylett?

  Did you?

• 25:25Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Having it not, yeah, having it not having it um I never robbed or took anything from anybody I always was prided myself on like getting out and figuring it out. And when I started to notice is like even when I lost things I would get it back like tenfold, right? Because I I I always had integrity my grandmother raised me she's a Christian woman very serious Sunday school the whole nine.

• 25:45Ed Mylett?

  You're such an interesting man. You're so interesting to me.

• 25:48Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Easter speeches, the whole nine and but she but she you know I really had a good heart I just got caught up in the streets, right? And and one thing that I started to realize is if I just keep my integrity and I don't and my name is good and my reputation is good. I can always figure out how to get it back around because one thing that I did learn about like in business. If your reputation is good and you're a good person and and you and you pour into people no matter what it may be. Even at your hardest times somebody might just point you at the right person or send you in the right direction because they know you're good. And the reason why I call it mental GPS, you know, I feel like there there will never be a time in my life. Where if I lost it all tomorrow that I couldn't get it back, right? Because I I know I understand it and I know how to get back where I left, right?

• 26:31Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  And then to keep up on that to keep on that path and when you from where we from when you lose it. You know, people go bad, you know what I'm saying? Not like Wall Street where they jump off buildings, but they'll rob their brother. Like they'll they'll they'll take from their you know they'll take from their best friend, you know what I'm saying? They'll and and not just take I've seen you know situations where people murder their closest friends, you know what I'm saying? Or or or kidnap, you know, kids or whatever and it's just like. We in a life like that, you know, it's hard not to because the sad thing is like the culture respects violence, you know, more so than money, you know? And it's just like. Either you're gonna be a leader that leads with evolution,

• 27:15Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  or you're gonna be a leader that leads with violence. And that's how it works, you know what I'm saying? So there's not a lot of leaders that lead with evolution, right? Because those are the ones that, you know, something you ever heard like when we talk, we say, wow, the good guys gotta go. Those are the ones that get killed.

• 27:31Ed Mylett?

  It's interesting you say that. The ones that lead with evolution end up experiencing the violence.

• 27:34Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Right.

• 27:35Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, you know, we're both thinking, I was thinking of Dr. King, right?

• 27:37Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Same thing.

• 27:37Ed Mylett?

  When you said it.

• 27:38Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Same thing. And even some of these kids, you know, like Nipsey Hussle.

• 27:42Ed Mylett?

  Great example.

• 27:42Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  One of my great, great, you know, Nipsey Hussle, he was trade books. Nipsey was, he had a hard to go. And when you look at his situation, you can't help but think like, how could, you know, like, this was somebody that was pouring back into the community, but he was leading with evolution.

• 27:58Ed Mylett?

  Yep.

• 27:58Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Right? And the guys that lead with violence, you know, end up being in these situations where, you know, they, they, they live longer.

• 28:07Ed Mylett?

  As a result of that, I watched an interview you did. And you said, I really don't trust anybody.

• 28:12Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Right.

• 28:12Ed Mylett?

  And then the host pushed you a little bit and you're like, well, that was my former life. And I watched, I said, nope, he still doesn't really trust anybody. Like, if we're being really, really honest.

• 28:22Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Yeah.

• 28:22Ed Mylett?

  Like, let's just cut the, to.

• 28:24Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Right.

• 28:25Ed Mylett?

  I don't think you really completely trust anybody, even right now.

• 28:28Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  You're absolutely right.

• 28:31Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  But I find myself opening up more and being transparent. But I still have to keep, you know, what kept me, even though it doesn't serve me that much in this life, I'm learning to trust and to understand and to get only quality people around. Because when you have only quality people around, it's easy for them to show you that they can be trusted to a certain extent. But I will tell you that 98% of people that I've led in my life have burnt me in some type of way. You know what I'm saying? And to the point where I'm just like, I already knew that was gonna happen. Why did I even go there?

• 29:07Ed Mylett?

  Yep.

• 29:08Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  And my reason, I think, for not trusting is.

• 29:13Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  I've never, outside of my grandmother, I've never experienced someone who gave me unconditional love.

• 29:21Ed Mylett?

  Yep.

• 29:22Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Right, and I never experienced someone that gave me like full transparency.

• 29:27Ed Mylett?

  Yep.

• 29:28Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  And, you know, I used to live out of survival and fear, you know what I'm saying? But I try now to live more out of love.

• 29:36Ed Mylett?

  Mm-hmm.

• 29:36Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  But, you know, I still can't, like Nipsey Hussle, like, I can't think that I'm exempt to what is going on because I'm still a part of that culture.

• 29:46Ed Mylett?

  Yep.

• 29:46Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  So I have to still, it's almost like being a soldier.

• 29:48Ed Mylett?

  Mm-hmm.

• 29:48Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  You know, if you go to, you know, uh, you know, Afghanistan or whatever, and you come back, you still have that mentality that I gotta protect myself and my family if something happens because I know how to do that.

• 29:59Ed Mylett?

  I knew today was gonna be good, but I didn't know it would be this good.

• 30:01Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Oh.

• 30:01Ed Mylett?

  No, I mean it.

• 30:03Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Right.

• 30:03Ed Mylett?

  And I'm gonna tell you something, like, you pull, when you're this honest, you pull honesty out of me and other people. And here's the truth, so I'm not a part of that culture, but I'm a part of life.

• 30:13Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Right.

• 30:14Ed Mylett?

  And I think that, again, I think that culture is a, like a microcosm, a compressed version of what the rest of life is about.

• 30:21Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Correct.

• 30:21Ed Mylett?

  And if I'm being really honest, if I'm being really honest, same with me.

• 30:28Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Hmm.

• 30:29Ed Mylett?

  I, I think even saying ninety-eight is a generous number.

• 30:32Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Right, right, it might be like ninety-nine, right?

• 30:34Ed Mylett?

  Nine point seven three two four, right, like? And I think what I landed on was, I'm gonna be trustworthy.

• 30:40Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Hmm.

• 30:41Ed Mylett?

  But I'm pretty guarded with my trust.

• 30:43Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Right.

• 30:43Ed Mylett?

  And, and, and life has proven to me.

• 30:46Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Right.

• 30:46Ed Mylett?

  That, and by the way, what's cool about that conclusion is that it's caused me to try to search for where can I trust? And for me, that's God.

• 30:53Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Right.

• 30:54Ed Mylett?

  Right, like, I don't put my faith in a man.

• 30:55Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  I gotta tell you about that, too.

• 30:56Ed Mylett?

  Please do, because that's what I've reached to, please, go ahead, what were you gonna say?

• 30:59Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  I mean, I, I, you know, I, I must, I must say, like, I don't know what's been going on with me lately, you know what I'm saying, in like the last year, but I, I, I used to pray all the time because my grandmother taught me to pray.

• 31:12Ed Mylett?

  Hmm.

• 31:12Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  But I never heard anything, right? I never, but like lately, like, I might be like meditating, and he talks to me.

• 31:21Ed Mylett?

  Hmm.

• 31:22Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Constantly.

• 31:23Ed Mylett?

  I love it.

• 31:23Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  And I'm I'm serious, like to the point, like it almost scares me sometime, right? And, you know, I, nobody's perfect, right? So, as long as I walk with God, I know I'll be good, right? But, people, and and and the type of people that he's brought in my life, like it's it's it's crazy. Like you wouldn't believe the type of people that, you know, call me, check on me, or whatever. And a lot of them don't understand where I come from and what I've been through. So, you know, they might not understand some of my mannerisms sometimes, but I make sure when I'm with them, I let them know that I I'm really there for them, and and and they're there for me.

• 32:05Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  But what I what I've noticed, and you said about trust, is like, I trust that God is gonna make sure he's good, but I still gotta watch the front door for us. You know what I'm saying? I just can't let anybody in the front door.

• 32:19Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 32:19Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Because that's our sacred space. And, you know, it is it's so it's it's so interesting, because you look at any part of life, I'm quite sure anybody can say that they don't really have people that they can trust. And the thing about coming from, like, where we come from, especially where I come from, I can't even say that about some of my closest family. You know what I'm saying? And it's just like, you would think you can trust your uncles, you would think that you could trust, you know what I'm saying? And all these different things. And my older brother died when we was younger, so I had to be the oldest, right? So I had to kind of jump out their hair first. And my experience with it just put me in a place where, um, I just put up all these boundaries, right?

• 33:01Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 33:01Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  And what I'm starting to notice lately is that, you know, that wall that I put up, you know, it it it it protected me, it kept everything out, I mean, it kept everything out. Well, kept everything in, but it also kept a lot of stuff out. So a lot of my blessings that were supposed to come to me, they were out by the wall, because I was blocking them, right? So I didn't take the wall down. I just took like the first three layers off so I could see over the wall, so I could see.

• 33:29Ed Mylett?

  Look at that. That's such a perfect description.

• 33:33Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Right, right, right.

• 33:34Ed Mylett?

  By the way, that is such a perfect description.

• 33:36Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Right.

• 33:37Ed Mylett?

  Because if you don't have let people in, you are keeping out so many blessings in your life.

• 33:42Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Yeah.

• 33:42Ed Mylett?

  I think it's almost like for me, like, by the way, taking a few of those Brexos levels off the wall is exactly what I've done. Like, you're saying things that Either I haven't had the confidence to say or the ability to say that I totally agree with. I love when I'm talking to somebody and I'm like, because it makes me, it hits my heart, like, that's truth.

• 34:00Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Right.

• 34:00Ed Mylett?

  Like, you know what I mean? Like, that's truth, what he just said. That's what I've done too. And almost a little bit, other than with God, I trust but verify. I don't have to verify with God. That's already been verified for me, right? And I also trust God will bring people into my life that can get close to me. But I also believe there's free will, there's free choice.

• 34:19Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Right.

• 34:20Ed Mylett?

  And he's gonna teach us lessons in life. There are Judases in our lives, right? That's part of the stories of the Bible, or whatever your faith might be.

• 34:28Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Right.

• 34:28Ed Mylett?

  There's that. There's also, though, it's really interesting, you could have written a book about a lot of things. You wrote one about adversity.

• 34:35Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Yes.

• 34:36Ed Mylett?

  And I'm like, because this is a ton of topics. You could have done about, you know, overcoming limited beliefs, overcoming your environment. Because you had, you transcended an environment, which is very rare in life. Why is adversity the topic of the book? And why did you think, this is the thing I want to talk about?

• 34:52Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Oh, wow, that's a great question. Um, that's what I pride myself in. You know what I'm saying? Like, I would be that adversity specialist, if you will.

• 35:02Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 35:04Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  That's what keeps me going. That's, that's, that's my purpose. My purpose is to continue to evolve, no matter what. But to continue to give that information back to my culture and to my people. And to be an example of what it's like to, to come out of that. Because every situation that I've been in, and it's funny that we was talking about God. I don't care how crazy it got. He always puts somebody in my life around the time that I needed some information. Or a ear, or a connection, or just the process. It never fails, right? And...

• 35:44Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  I believe, I truly believe that he does that for me to show people that you can maintain your integrity and, and, and be a solid individual and still survive, right?

• 35:57Ed Mylett?

  Love it.

• 35:58Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  You know, without, without doing anything that would go against who you are as a man and then your legacy. Because you, you know, you, when you think about some of the great leaders, they did great things, right? But their integrity is what kept you locked into them, right? Because you got people that's successful, but they did a lot of foul things. And when you hear people talk about them, you, you're like, wow, I never knew that. And, and adversity to me is that small glare of hope. Because if I tell you what I went through in this book, your life might be totally different, but you might be up against the same odds.

• 36:36Ed Mylett?

  I can tell you that that's the truth. My life is totally different than yours. But I, see, great storytellers tell me stories with a you meaning.

• 36:45Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Right.

• 36:45Ed Mylett?

  So as I read your work, I didn't grow up like that, but I have my version of it in my life, right? And so the lessons in the book, the lessons in this conversation.

• 36:54Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Hmm.

• 36:55Ed Mylett?

  I don't care what someone's life story is. These are facts, like.

• 36:58Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Right.

• 36:59Ed Mylett?

  You said something so important that God has sent you that person when you needed him, the information, the insight, whatever it might be.

• 37:06Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Yeah.

• 37:07Ed Mylett?

  I want everybody to hear this man said this, and the reason that I want you to hear it is, he does that for you too. The difference is, you need to be in expectation that he's going to and aware that he's going to, because he has probably sent those people to you previously in your life. And if you're not aware he's doing it or open to the possibility he's doing it, you will miss them.

• 37:25Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Yeah.

• 37:26Ed Mylett?

  You will miss them. It's like that analogy of the people that are sitting on the roof during the flood. Someone comes by and says, hey, jump in the boat. Nope, I'm waiting for God to save me. Somebody else comes by in a boat, I'm waiting for God to save me. Third guy comes by in a boat, I'm waiting for God to save me. Then they drown and they get to heaven and they go, God, I thought you were gonna save me. He goes, I sent three damn people in a boat.

• 37:44Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Three boats.

• 37:45Ed Mylett?

  Get in the damn boat, right? And so there's a, there's some, there, there's, you have to be in expectation that God is gonna send you a blessing at some point. But if you're not looking for it and expecting it, you don't hear them or see them or feel them, and then you miss them.

• 37:59Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  You have to be in a good place too, though. You have to be in a good place with yourself. I really realized that, because there was times that I wasn't in a good place for myself and it was just a bunch of noise. I let things on the outside of me control. My emotions, how I felt, you know what I'm saying, I I I just had to come to a place where, and I'm not there yet, of course, but I just started to understand what what peace was like, to get a little taste of that, and I started to understand what going inward was about. Cause the minute I started going inward, everything changed, right? Because now, I'm not, I I can't fault anyone in my life for what they done to me.

• 38:38Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  I have to look inside and see what, how I reacted, or what I've done to contribute to that, right? And and I can't blame anyone else, right? And for me, um, when I started to understand that is when things started to slow down, right? Cause I wasn't present, I go have conversations with people, it's all in the surface, yeah, it's all good, whatever, I'm gone. But then I started taking time, like to look people in the eyes and be like, are you alright, man? How how you feeling, like, what's going on? And I started to have conversations where I wasn't, you know, leading all of the conversation. Like, you know, just tell me, you know, how you feeling, what's going on? And when people came to me, I, you know, you know, and I pride myself on having a lot of advice, that's just like my thing, you know, I think I'm like, you know, the therapist among the crew, you know what I'm saying?

• 39:24Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  But I ask them, I ask them now, though, I say, you know, one is, you know, do you want me to just listen? You know what I'm saying, two is, do you want me to tell you what I think? Or three is, do you want me to side with you, cause I could do that too, you know what I'm saying? So, I could be like, oh, that's crazy, that should have never happened. And I started to understand because, you know, where we come from, it's hard for somebody to tell you how they really feel. It took me until I was forty to tell somebody I was, I wasn't, I was sad, or I was depressed, you know what I'm saying? Think about that, or or or I don't, I I don't feel confident about this, you know what I'm saying? Or or that I I'm I might be, you know, concerned.

• 39:59Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 39:59Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Because when you're that guy, you have to.

• 40:01Ed Mylett?

  Can't show weakness.

• 40:02Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Yeah, you can't show anything.

• 40:03Ed Mylett?

  You said earlier, I'm depressed, I'm drinking.

• 40:06Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Right.

• 40:06Ed Mylett?

  I'm drinking a bottle of champagne in the morning, moving a tequila in the afternoon.

• 40:09Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Right.

• 40:09Ed Mylett?

  You're eating, you're heavy.

• 40:11Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Yeah.

• 40:11Ed Mylett?

  Right, you're stressed, you're worried, you're running, you're running, you're running. Is there any one thing you did, or was there any one moment? Or was it just an accumulation of things where you're like, that's enough, I can't do this anymore?

• 40:20Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  I would say this, I didn't have a purpose before then. I was just chasing money and trying to get out of my situation. And he did that, God did that for me, took me out of my situation. And I'm. Four albums in, about eight million records sold. Crazy. Like, but what am I doing for him?

• 40:39Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  What, what, how am I continuing his message? What, what am I doing? He, he, he took me out of a situation where I could have had a life sentence. It was there. I, I still don't know how I dodged that, by the way. I, I think about that all the time, but it was there, right? And I've lost, you know, so many people. And I sat there and I'm just like, yo, like, you know, right now, I'm the issue. I need to work on myself because the things that I have going on the side of me is no way to lead anyone, right? And I'm making music, so I got millions of people listening to me and, and listening to what I'm saying. I'm not a saint, but I do got common sense, right? And it's just like, I'm, I'm saying things that might affect people in different ways. But I'm like, and, and my thing is the audio gotta match the video, right?

• 41:24Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  So I'm saying, you know what I'm saying? I'm saying this stuff, but I'm doing something else, right? And I gotta get online with what I'm saying, right? So now I'm, I'm walking into, and it was the scariest thing in my life. And by the way, just to be clear, like, I was met with a moment where I knew it was a moment. Meaning I was, I was, my first album came out, I was selling, um, and this is, uh, uh, uh, statute of limitations, by the way, anybody listen, I'm good. I talked to my lawyers about it. And I had to make, I had to make a decision, uh, which was one of the, the biggest decisions. I had to make a decision what I was gonna do because I was trying to balance the streets and music.

• 42:09Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  And I had some small piece of success and I had to walk away cold turkey from the streets. Now, mind you, and that mean depend on music, right? And when I did that, I had three of those Nextel chirp phones. That's what we used to talk on. And all those phones had a lot of money on them, like, people owed me money. And I woke up and I just said, I'm not doing this no more. Put the phones in the bag, threw them in the, uh, trash bin in my building and I, and I walked away, right? And that was like my first, like, okay, I'm gonna do this music stuff. Now, mind you. About eight months later, I'm performing at a show and tear my vocal cords. Now, I can't talk.

• 42:53Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  I got a record deal with a major label. I can't talk. I got shows booked up from here to two thousand, whatever. I can't go on the stage and that was the first time he humbled me. He humbled me. He humbled me. He humbled me and I had to really look at this and go, I'm so close. This could happen. What do I need to do? And that was just a lot of praying, a lot of confusion. And then he let me live. I got a throat surgery that I didn't have insurance at the time. Imagine, I had Lamborghinis, all this stuff and no, no health insurance. Imagine that. So I had to pay for my surgery with cash and then I got back out there. And I started the same, same thing. And then that's when he hit me again with Bell's palsy. He hit me with Bell's palsy in my face. For real?

• 43:38Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Yeah, my face. Got crooked and my mouth was, and it was like my eye was shut. Was that from stress? That was God. Cause he, he, he let me live again and I went back out and started doing the same thing. And was going about it the same way. And after that, I was just like, you know what, man? I gotta change something because I've been too blessed. You know what I'm saying? And, and, and now I'm, I'm looking at it and I'm going like, the next thing might not even be something I can recover from. And that's what started me to just start to understand that I gotta start fixing some of my ways. And it first started with like a lot of my personal stuff I would do. Like, you know, just, you know, I, I came from a situation where if you sit down with somebody, it's like sitting down and you're being interrogated. I'm not gonna tell you the truth.

• 44:23Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  You know what I'm saying? I can't. You know what I'm saying? It's like, it's against the code and it might get me in a lot of trouble. But then I started to notice that a grown man should never lie. Even if it's gonna get him out of trouble. You know what I'm saying? So now I gotta change this, you know, and that wasn't easy to do because I was taught to say whatever I had to say to get out of any situation. And now I'm having to work through this. And that was like the first step, and then it started going on different steps, different steps. And when I got to a place where I started to, um, to answer your question, when I started to realize that I gotta, I gotta do some work. Right? I didn't know where. I didn't know where to start. I just started YouTube and stuff, talking to older people. Telling I had my business partner, now he's been my business partner for like twenty years. I would just go sit with him and tell him what's really going on. I'm like, man, I got about five people trying to kill me.

• 45:10Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  I got beef with these guys over here and that, and then this is happening, that was, I was in a shootout last week. And now this is that, and I gotta go to California, and this is happening, and he's just like, okay, okay, just calm down. Okay, what are you, what are you concerned about most? And then we started to like work through problems. And he's like, okay, well, you, have you ever thought about reaching out to them and, you know, just having a conversation? But my thing was, you know, they're the opposition, so I gotta, I gotta, I gotta press. Cause I can't, I can't let my guys think that I'm trying to sort all these things out. And, and I just started to understand that there is a such thing called conflict resolution. So that started to help me out a little bit as far as my life. And now I got in a space where I started having a little peace. And I was able to start like working on myself, like my health and reading books and just all these different things.

• 45:56Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  And that thirst for knowledge kicked back in, cause I hate learning in school. When I was in school, like I dropped out of school in the sixth grade. I got my GED when I was in bootcamp. That's crazy. Right. And then when, and like, in, in around that time, it just hit me again. I just had this thirst for like knowledge. And I just started going around asking people questions. And think about this now, it went from me asking, you know, somebody that I knew that worked at a restaurant that I just felt like was, had some type of prestige. From that point to me calling John Maxwell and going, hey, I got seven questions I need to ask you. You know, John, he like, shoot them at me. To that, to Robert Greene, you know, to Robin Sharma, to all these different people. Tony. Tony Robbins. And all these, and, and not to like name drop, but it's just like.

• 46:40Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  I'm getting this information now to give back to the culture.

• 46:44Ed Mylett?

  Yep.

• 46:44Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Because I'm able to go outside of my comfort zone and get it. But this stuff helps me with my life as well, like we was talking about Louis earlier. Like, but I've always been that type of person, so to answer your question, I got the information from the people that I respected at the time that I was able to mingle with. And I don't come as a, you know, my reputation exceeds me, meaning like I don't come, and by the way, the most gangsta's guys where I'm from are the coolest guys you ever see. They're not loud, they're not boisterous, they're like Denzel in American Gangsta. They're real smooth, but they will reach out and touch you.

• 47:21Ed Mylett?

  I can tell you, this is like an all time great conversation. It's all time great conversation. A lot of things about you that I noticed, one is like how self-aware you are, just driving out here, it's like, I think you're here today, like there's millions of people around me like, oh my God, this is unbelievable. But at the same time, lately on this show, God sends me the right person in that seat for me. Like I was, I've got some stuff going on in my life right now that's not great, and some of it's betrayal stuff with other people, like we're talking about. However, I was just talking to somebody, actually someone that's producing a TV show I'm doing right now, literally before you got here, I was driving out here. And I said, I want to figure out what God's trying to teach me with this lesson. And that's one of the things you said earlier is like, what am I supposed to be learning from this? What am I supposed to be, I'm not going to get nothing, Eric Thomas says all the time,

• 48:06Ed Mylett?

  you better get something for your pain.

• 48:07Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Right.

• 48:07Ed Mylett?

  You know, and the other thing you do very well is a lot of times, when you begin to teach things you're learning, you begin to own them more. So a lot of you that are learning things, listening to the show, you don't teach it enough to other people, and the more you begin to teach it, the more you actually begin to live it. People think, I can't teach any of this until I'm living it. No, you could say, look, I'm not good at this yet, but this is what I'm learning. And the more you begin to teach something, I've found in my own life, like not everything I've taught all the time I was doing at the time, but I was honest enough to say I wasn't. This isn't me yet, but let me tell you, this is what so and so gave me advice on, or what I know I need to change about me. And the more I taught things, the more I owned them. The other thing I've always wanted to know about you, because, and I know the answer

• 48:49Ed Mylett?

  because it's in the book and in interviews you've done, but of all the people you collaborated with, one of the other things that holds people back in addition to, and by the way, I want to step back, you play such an important role in culture right now because of what you just said. There are not enough people reaching people in the communities you come from, or young people.

• 49:07Jay "Jeezy" Jenkins?

  Right.

• 49:08Ed Mylett?

  With this knowledge and information, the world's different. This isn't 30 years ago where you could just get a Tony Robbins tape. Right. There are dudes like me, guys like you, people like John, that this information's there. Right. But it's not what most people from these communities are consuming on their feet every single day. Right. And the fact that you're saying, hey, listen, I come from this, let me teach you this. And this could be someone from a particular culture, particular age group, particular part of the world. Mm-hmm. That's why I do this. This isn't, podcasting is not a big source of revenue for me. Right, right. I mean, like, I got businesses. That's real. Right? But what it is for me is, and by the way, serious, no, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. We're in the middle of a negotiation right now. That's a whole other story.

• 49:50Ed Mylett?

  But having said that, um, but, but I, I want to make sure to acknowledge you and the role that you're playing. And again, this combination. I received that, brother. It's a fact, and the combination of your humility with your confidence is crazy. It's like an honor for me, everybody, to introduce this man to you because today's going to be an absolute treasure with, uh, the great Les Brown. So Les, thank you so much for being here.

• 50:11Les Brown?

  Well, thank you so much for having me, and you're very modest. I'm looking at the greatest speaker on the planet. I won't think you could sneak up on me. I know when I'm in the presence of greatness, I listen to you. I thank you for the work that you're doing, the lives that you've transformed and the impact that you're making on the planet.

• 50:30Ed Mylett?

  The reason I ask you this is when I introduced you as the greatest speaker that I've ever seen, and by the way, I, I, that short changes. I believe greatest teacher communicator that I've ever seen in my life. And the other one that made the impact on me was Art Williams, who I know you would both agree, this is, there was an amazing communicator, still is.

• 50:47Les Brown?

  Yeah.

• 50:48Ed Mylett?

  And so I met him one time, and, uh, he gave me a nice compliment about a talk I had given, and so I said, well, there's only, there's two I've ever seen in my life. And I said, it's you, Mr. Williams. And I said, and then Les Brown's in a class all his own. And I said, he's so talented and gifted, and he stopped me. And this leads to your mother, again, a situation that I know about, I'd like you to share, and he goes, He's not that talented and gifted. He's a worker. He works. Les works at it. This is a skill he's developed. He wasn't born with this. He's worked at it. If you knew the people I know, this guy is on the road. He works. And then I was listening to you and this amazing, your mother's this theme in your life, but when you were a young boy, your mother lost the ability

• 51:33Ed Mylett?

  to work. And so I think the story is you start sort of like making a little moonshine to sort of support the family, right? And something happens. And I think you're like 10 years old, something like this, right? And then you gotta take over. Would you just share this? Because I think everything happens for us, not to us. Our test will be our testimony. And your, the messes of our lives don't disqualify us. I think so many people think this mess I'm in, this divorce, this business failure, this choice I made, I'm not proud of, that I'm ashamed of it, it disqualifies me. My background, my upbringing, I'm disqualified. Turns out, you can turn those things into be your testimony. And this situation with your mom, I think triggered this work ethic in you at a young age that Art told me about.

• 52:16Les Brown?

  Yes. Mama, she started selling homebrew and moonshine. And, and it was difficult for us at that time for her raising seven children. She was injured on a job. And so she promised our birth mother that these children will never go to bed hungry. We will always have a roof over our head, our head and, and, and clothes on our back. And a man came, I'll never forget what you're talking about. So you, you've done your research as much as I've been doing research on you, you and I are so much alike. And, and this guy, his name was Calhoun. And he knocked on the door. He said, Leslie, how are you doing? I said, fine. Mama always

• 52:59Les Brown?

  said, don't ever open the door without telling me. And I said, oh, hey, Mama, no, no, no, no, don't tell her. I've got two friends with me. We're gonna surprise her. Open the door. And I opened the door and let them come in. And one of the guys grabbed me, I was ten years old, in the throat and hit me on the side of the head and threw me up against the wall. And he said, she's back there in the room. And they went back there and Mama was selling homebrew and moonshine. And he said, pull up the linoleum. And they pull up the linoleum and she kept it under the floor of the house that we were in. And they brought Mama out in handcuffs.

• 53:45Les Brown?

  Then I said, Mama, I'm so sorry. And she said, it's okay, Leslie, it's okay. And she never, ever, ever mentioned it when she came back. And so we don't have any relatives. We adopted. So the neighbors, you know, they will come in and bring us food from time to time. And I would collect copper and aluminum and sometimes stand in the corner, hey, boy, come over and get on the truck with older men to move heavy equipment. And but years later, fast forward, man, I had it in my heart.

• 54:30Les Brown?

  If I ever saw this guy, get out, kill him. And boy, you know, God, for he has a sense of humor. Here I am talking to my young son, John Leslie, who's a speaker and trainer. I said, John Leslie, anger is a wind that blows out the lamp of the mind. He said, what do you mean by that, Daddy? I said, don't allow anger to govern you. Never make a decision while you are angry. It blows out the wind of the mind. You make decisions and do things that you will regret later. At this time, a guy comes over and tapped me on the shoulder. And he said, hello, sir.

• 55:14Les Brown?

  I just want you to know, we here in Mania are so proud of you. I had a talk show at King World. It paid me five million dollars to do that Les Brown talk show. Now, look, I'll never forget his face. I said to myself, oh, my God, this Calhoun.

• 55:30Speaker 05

  Now here's my son here, and I'm looking this guy's face, "Put my mother in jail." And man, I thought, I was, I was, I was getting short of the breath, and John Leslie said, "Dad, are you all right?" I said, "No." And he, and he, this guy, he just wanted to shake my hand, "Man, yes, Leslie, man, you, you, you, you're really making us all proud." And I said, "Excuse me, sir, excuse me." And I went outside, and my son said, "What's going on? Is it something you ate?" I said, "No." "Now, John Leslie."

• 56:11Speaker 05

  "I gotta go." I said, "Let's get in the car, I gotta go." He said, "What's happening, Dad?" And I drove away for a little while, and I parked on the side to collect my stuff. I said, "Is that man, he, he's the one that put your grandmother in jail?" And I promised if I ever saw him again, I would kill him. He said, "Oh, God." I said, "John Leslie, you know what?" It's a God moment. He said, "Why?" I said, "I got that hatred out of my heart for him." "Because you were here." "I have to model what I'm teaching you."

• 56:54Speaker 05

  "People say, 'Practice what you preach.'" "But, no, God put it in me. I got to preach what I practice. I got to forgive." "And forgiveness is not forgetting. Forgiveness is remembering without anger."

• 57:11Speaker 05

  "I forgive him, but most of all, I forgive myself. Please forgive me, God, for carrying this anger and hatred all these years." Yeah. It was a thing. I've never told this story before.

• 57:29Ed Mylett?

  Oh my gosh.

• 57:31Speaker 05

  Man, this thing, you know, Forrest Gump had a point. Life is like a box of chocolates. You'd never know what you're going to get. That's all I got to say about that.

• 57:44Ed Mylett?

  I can't believe you just shared that with us. I, oh my gosh, your life is, one of the things about you, Les, is that your life is such an example of what's possible. I mean, everybody, I want you just picturing this about this beautiful man. I want you, this is, he's born, his mother ends up giving him to adoption to Manny, he and his brother. They live in these conditions. He's 10 years old. His mother has to go away for a while. He's got to support the family. He's had all these incidents he's had to observe up close. There are other ones with his mother when she's cleaning houses and this woman claps her hands because she's got to know when her mother's in a room because she's going to steal something which his mother would never do. This man goes on to influence million, I mean,

• 58:25Ed Mylett?

  literally millions of people's lives. And then this is what's great about all of us making our dreams come true. When you make your dreams come true, the dreams of other people and dreams you can't picture also come true because then he influences this goofy dude, me, 20 something years old, working in an orphanage, and it inspires me to change my life. So it's just, your life is such an example. And what's interesting to me, Les, is it was mainly tied to mom, meaning you wanted to do something great for your mother all your life. And that was bigger, I think, than any obstacle that got in your way. I'd like you to share this with people because I think most people don't understand the power of having something big you're going after that means more to you than the pain you're going to have to go through in order to get it. I don't

• 59:09Ed Mylett?

  think enough people set huge, big goals that are from the heart. Don't you agree?

• 59:14Speaker 05

  Yes, you said that. I was listening to you last night. You know, Dexter Jaeger, as you know from that way, he said it's a dream is big enough.

• 59:23Les Brown?

  The odds don't matter. And so when you say, "Dream big," that's major. One, there's power in pursuit. Because as Jim Rowan said, it's not the accomplishment of the goal that matters. It's what you become in pursuit of the dream in the process. Because when you have a big dream, it will introduce you to a part of yourself that you don't know right now, that you will never discover in your comfort zone. Because in order to achieve that dream, you've got to die to who you are now. "I must die dearly." You must die to who you are now to give birth to who you are to become.

• 1:00:06Les Brown?

  I believe that all of us have stories of greatness in us. And follow me as I say this as this downward. We all have stories of greatness within us. "In the beginning was the Word. Thou shalt create things and shall be established unto you. When shall the Kingdom of God come? Seek ye first the Kingdom of God; his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you. When shall it come? The Kingdom of God cometh not by observation. They shall say, 'Is neither lo there, lo here?'" Behold, the Kingdom of God is within you. And that kingdom is voice activated. So when you speak, people who are in a dark place, you will bring them out into the light.

• 1:00:51Les Brown?

  When you speak, somebody's got a gun to their head. When you speak, they'll realize, "Life is God's gift to me, and I'll live my life as my gift to God." When you speak, someone who's depressed and feeling anxious will remember, "Be anxious for nothing. I'll keep thee in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee." So that's the power that you bring. And all the products that you have on YouTube, that I've, I mean, how ironic. They said, "Coincidence is God's way of staying anonymous." "I've been so marinated listening to your stuff, and then you've been listening to me. Come on, what a, look at God.

• 1:01:35Les Brown?

  What a mighty God we serve." Come on, you can't make this stuff up.

• 1:01:43Ed Mylett?

  That's like my honor to think that you're listening to my stuff. I gotta tell you, you guys, you know, you just get what I started, I told you all, you just have this treasure. It's like you never want to stop hearing from Les. He's just, he's just remarkable. And the way you pull things and download them from all these places is just, it's mind blowing. I wish I were that great.

• 1:02:03Les Brown?

  You are the messenger and you are the message.

• 1:02:10Ed Mylett?

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• 1:02:51Ed Mylett?

  podcast and when I speak. So find your next fall favorites at Quince. Download the Quince app for app exclusive offers or go to quince.com/ed for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada and the UK too. That's Q U I N C E dot com slash ed. So you know, I've been trying to take my health and my morning routine to the next level. And I used to do a whole bunch of different stuff, tons of different supplements. And then I found all in one in a drink with IM8. IM8 is the way to simplify your supplement routine finally, once and for all. 16 supplements replaced 90 ingredients across nine major organ systems in one drink. You can have all these supplements for $2.61 a day. I've changed

• 1:03:35Ed Mylett?

  my mornings. The whole IM8 routine has changed my mornings. I feel great and I bring energy to the entire day. Go to im8health.com/ed10 right now or click the link in the description and use code ED10 for a free welcome kit, five free travel sachets plus 10% off your order. That's code ED10 at im8health.com/ed10. Code ED10 at im8health.com/ed10. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. That was a great conversation and if you want to hear the full interview, be sure to follow the Ed Mylett Show on Apple and Spotify. Links are in the show notes. Here's an excerpt I did with our next guest.

• 1:04:21Ed Mylett?

  My guest today, 13 years ago today, was sentenced to essentially life in prison. 13 years ago today, and then he finds himself sitting across from me 13 years later, having completely transformed his life and has become one of the great speakers on planet Earth, one of the great influencers on planet Earth, and has become dear friends with many of my best friends. And it's one of the most remarkable stories you are ever gonna hear in your damn life. So get ready. Strap in and here is Damon West. Damon, welcome to the show, brother. Let's go back first and let's just go to 13 years ago today first. We can go back from there, but let's just go to that.

• 1:05:04Ed Mylett?

  What, what does that feel like when you hear the words that you are guilty and going away? What is the emotional feeling that someone like you, only you can experience? What is that moment like in someone's? I've always wondered, I've never been able to ask somebody that question before.

• 1:05:19Damon West?

  Right, no, it's like looking down the barrel of a gun and someone pulled the trigger and that's it. I mean, they unloaded on me and what does it feel like? It feels like rock bottom. That was my rock bottom moment and it feels like, I felt like I got punched in the stomach really hard. When you know the wind has knocked out of you. When the judge read the sentence out 65 years and it was like, man, they just hit me with life. And I knew it was gonna be bad, Ed, because I walked back in the courtroom. First of all, the trial lasted six days. Six days is a long criminal trial for crimes that were non-aggravated. No one was ever home during the burglaries I committed. They're all meth-related burglaries, property crimes around meth. Now, it doesn't mean I didn't do the crime. I did the crimes and I was a bad guy because when, when I broke into people's houses, my victims, I didn't just steal their property, man. I stole their sense of security.

• 1:06:04Damon West?

  And so I deserved to go to prison. But the trial lasted six days and over those six days, the jury heard the story of Damon West. And as they heard the story more and more, they began to resent and hate Damon West. And I could see it in their eyes. I could feel it coming out of them and they had every right to, because here's a guy in front of them that had everything going in life, every advantage, every privilege, every opportunity. And Ed, at the end of that six-day trial, they went to deliberate for 10 minutes.

• 1:06:29Ed Mylett?

  Oh my gosh.

• 1:06:30Damon West?

  10 minutes, bro.

• 1:06:31Ed Mylett?

  10 minutes on your life.

• 1:06:32Damon West?

  10 minutes on my life, and I came back in the courtroom.

• 1:06:34Ed Mylett?

  What?

• 1:06:34Damon West?

  They give you a bologna sandwich whenever you're in the breaks back there. People don't see this, but in the back they have a holding cell and they bring you lunch because your lunch is a bologna sandwich when you're in jail. And I'm sitting there taking a couple bites of the bologna sandwich and the bailiff comes in and says, "They're ready." And I'm like, I couldn't even chew the sandwich, my throat knotted up, I spit it out in the toilet.

• 1:06:52Ed Mylett?

  Are you freaking kidding me?

• 1:06:53Damon West?

  Yeah, man, cuz it's like, oh dude, that's not good. So I walked back into the courtroom and, and I have two paid attorneys, Ed. I'm, I'm a white, middle-class guy in America. I've got two paid attorneys. I've never had a felony conviction. I thought I was gonna get probation that day and I thought I'd be out getting high because I'm still an addict in my addiction, right? And so I come back into the courtroom and my second chair counsel, a woman named Karen Lambert, she said, "Brace yourself, it's gonna be bad." And I'm like, "How bad, Karen?" She said, "Well, you were gone for that brief 10 minutes. The jury sent a note into the judge from the jury room. They wanted to know if they could give you life without parole." Ed, life without parole is a capital punishment. These aren't capital crimes. I'm like, Karen, that's crazy. She said, "Get ready." And the judge came back in.

• 1:07:37Damon West?

  Damon Joseph West, you are hereby sentenced to 65 years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. The first thing I heard, yeah, the first thing I heard was my mother gasp out loud. She's behind me in the courtroom and, you know, the sound only a mother can make when she hears her son get a life sentence in prison. And Ed, that day, there was so much going on and after the, the moment's over, the sheriffs are on me, the bailiffs are on me, they handcuffed me, they're dragging me out of the courtroom and I lock eyes at my mom on the way out the door and all I can think to say to my mom, Ed, is, "I'm sorry, mom." And I don't, I don't even know that I fully understood that a minute or anything like that, but it's the only thing I can think to say to my poor mother. My, my father's there too. But Ed, right after that trial was over, my mother and my dad are brought into this, they put me in a little room, it's got a bulletproof glass and they told me to wait

• 1:08:22Damon West?

  on the other side of the glass. And my mom and my dad were escorted and they feel sorry for my parents cuz I just got life. And so my mom has a conversation with me. It's a five-minute little one-off deal and, and she's just on it, man. And she's telling me, she's like, you know, Damon, debts and life demand to be paid. You just got hit with one heck of a bill from the state of Texas. Cuz she said, "You did the things they said you did. So you're gonna have to go to prison, you're gonna pay that debt. You owe Texas that debt." She said, "But you owe your father and I debt too." She said, "We gave you all the opportunity, love and support to be anything you want to be in life." And she said, "That's how you just repaid us, Damon?" She said, "That's not gonna work." She's reminding me, she said, we raised you in Port Arthur, Texas, a giant melty pot of a city, gave you a great moral compass, what you chose to not use, she said, so here's

• 1:09:05Damon West?

  the debt you're gonna pay to us. Now, Ed, here it is, man, this is the direction of my life. This is those moments that you come to and you say, this is where it changed. She said, when you go to prison, you will not get into one of these white hate groups, one of these Aryan Brotherhood type of gangs, because you're scared because you're the minority in there. She said, that's not gonna work. You were never raised to be a racist. You're not gonna start now. She said, you will not get, she said, you will not get any tattoos while you're inside that prison.

• 1:09:29Ed Mylett?

  You don't have any.

• 1:09:30Damon West?

  No, I don't have any tats, man. I mean, and I was in the joint for almost 10 years, man. These guys, they want a tattoo every inch of your body in a joint. Man, every time these guys would come up to me in prison, Wes, let me put a tattoo on you, man. I'd be like, man, dude, I can't do it, man. My mom said, no. Because she did. Because listen to what she said next on May 18th, 2009, 13 years ago today. She says, Damon, no gangs, no tattoos. She said, you come back as the man we raised, or don't come back at all.

• 1:09:57Ed Mylett?

  Oh, my gosh, brother.

• 1:09:58Damon West?

  I was floored, Ed.

• 1:09:59Ed Mylett?

  Yeah. Your mom rose to the occasion, really, right?

• 1:10:02Damon West?

  Rose. And she's a nurse, man. She's used to traumatic situations, right? She compartmentalized all the pain and got to work. And I asked my mom since then, I said, Mom, what was it like for you? Because I'm very, like I said, I want to ask you questions today. I want to ask questions. I want to understand people in the moment. She said, Damon, what I envisioned was my son is on a gurney dying, and I'm doing triage to save my son's life. And I stepped up, and that was what came to me from the Holy Spirit. She said, and my mom's a very devout Christian woman. So she said, that's what came to me. But it was like you were on a gurney dying, and I've got to stem the flow of blood, or you're gonna die.

• 1:10:33Ed Mylett?

  My gosh. So everyone, I want you to step back for a second. First thing is, you're hearing this unbelievable story, right? And we're gonna go deeper on it. But I want you to know, as we go through this story, you're gonna begin to hear some of the turnarounds and the strategies and the tactics that have produced this guy sitting in front of me. Because some of the people that I admire and respect most in the world have been recommending Damon to me for some time. And God's just so amazing, man. We've been, you know, kind of trying to put something together for a while. And I, I send you a message on Instagram, I go, hey, May 18th, get there.

• 1:11:00Damon West?

  Yeah.

• 1:11:01Ed Mylett?

  You're like, I'll come, right? And little do I know that that'd be the 13 year to the day anniversary of you getting And because I had no idea what the date, I didn't even know what the significance meant at all. So God is just absolutely amazing that he sends you to me on that day.

• 1:11:14Damon West?

  I call it God thanks, man. That's why I text you, dude, you're never gonna believe this. Not only is it the 13 year anniversary, it's my three year anniversary of being married. My wife and I, Kendall and I got married 10 years to the day that I got sentenced to life in prison.

• 1:11:27Ed Mylett?

  You came to see me on your anniversary. Now I really love you. Thank you.

• 1:11:29Damon West?

  Oh, man.

• 1:11:30Ed Mylett?

  And your wife probably hates me, but.

• 1:11:31Damon West?

  No, we were in Mexico a couple. When I sent you that video, we were in Mexico. And so we went for our anniversary trip a week early, a couple of weeks early because I have so many speaking engagements going on.

• 1:11:40Ed Mylett?

  Isn't this good to hear, by the way, because now you guys know there's like a happily ever after at some point, but let's stay in this thing here.

• 1:11:46Damon West?

  Let's go.

• 1:11:47Ed Mylett?

  So, okay, you get sentenced, but let's go back. They were meth, it sounds pretty severe from what I understand happened. You had nonviolent robberies basically in your history and you were a meth addict. Is that accurate?

• 1:11:57Damon West?

  Absolutely.

• 1:11:58Ed Mylett?

  Okay, so that's the, that's a long time. Life in prison was 65 years for nonviolent, you know, robberies. But let's just, you did the crime and you, you did time for it. It just seems excessive to me and I think it is excessive, but let's go back. You get raised by obviously these beautiful parents. You're an unbelievable athlete, right? What, was it one decision that altered the direction of your life? Is it one time you just decided to use drugs once and you just bam, you were hooked? Or what took place, what took you down the road that led you 13 years ago to this day to sitting in that room?

• 1:12:28Damon West?

  Yeah, you know, whenever I was younger, I, I got into substance abuse at a young age. The, my gateway drug was alcohol. It's the first thing I ever did. I got into my dad's beer when I was 10. You know, and after that, I, I, I smoked pot when I was 12 and I had a lot of character issues, man. And, but I could throw a football and this is Texas, man. Texas high school football. It's like a religion in my home state. These people are very serious about their football and I was the man. I was the three year starting quarterback for a 5A school. So my behaviors never were, I never, I was never held accountable for my behaviors and I'm not blaming anybody else for that. It's, I mean, but I, um, I didn't, I didn't get held accountable. I was a good student. I made grades. Um, got a scholarship to play football at the University of Texas, but I think the one decision that I made

• 1:13:08Damon West?

  is that I got into substance abuse at a young age. I had no idea that I was an addict, you know, you don't, there's not a genetic test for this yet. I mean, maybe there will be one day, but. I was an addict and once I put in those chemicals for the first time, I liked the way it felt. I liked the buzz I got from drinking. Then I wanted to try something different and it wasn't until I got to college that I got into more hardcore drugs. I was playing football and I got injured, a career ended injury in 1996 against Texas A&M. I'm 20, man. I was a starting quarterback. You played, you played sports, man. You know how big it is till, when your career ends prematurely, you're not ready for this.

• 1:13:39Ed Mylett?

  It's your whole dream. It's your whole world.

• 1:13:41Damon West?

  It was my identity. That's the problem, man. I wrapped my identity up into something external. And I see people all the time in the world, we see people that wrap their identities up into something external, their money, their job, whatever. That's not you, man. What's you is inside you. I didn't get that back then though, Ed. I didn't get that, I didn't get the memo, right? So I got into hardcore drugs in 96. Cocaine, ecstasy pills, graduated college, went off to work and worked in the United States Congress, worked for God running for president, worked on Wall Street, Ed. I was a Wall Street, I was training to be a stockbroker in Dallas when I was introduced to meth for the first time. But now we're back to the one decision of substance abuse, man. Once I put the chemicals in at a young age, I liked the way it felt and I chased that.

• 1:14:19Ed Mylett?

  You also, if you don't mind saying it, we're gonna go a little bit more personal, but I don't know if it was at the time or later, you sort of uncovered that there's probably a not very fair incident that happened to you when you were a young man as well. That you're maybe, maybe you're masking it a little.

• 1:14:32Damon West?

  Oh, yeah. No, when I was nine, I was, I was molested by a babysitter, female babysitter. And this is, so, but I'm careful when I, when I talk about it, I'm careful not to say that, hey, you know, this is what happened to me and this is the road I went down because of that. Because some people are really, some people have very traumatic experiences with that. This was a female babysitter that we were doing things, I was nine years old when this happened. No nine year old should be doing the stuff I was doing. But it didn't affect me in the sense, Ed, that it's like, oh my God, my world was turned upside down. I can't believe this happened to me. What happened to me with that is I got introduced to adult behaviors at a very young age. It's like someone lets you inside that big door and once you got on the other side of that door at nine,

• 1:15:13Damon West?

  which you're not supposed to be on the side of that door at nine, there's all these other doors, but those doors aren't locked. Those doors are for adults. You can just open doors to those because you make choices and. But I got on the other side of that door at nine years old and now there's drinking, there's smoking, there's smoking dope, there's skipping school, cutting classes, chasing girls, all that stuff. I got introduced to that at a very young age. So

• 1:15:33Ed Mylett?

  Very well said. Very well said. I love how you just said that.

• 1:15:36Damon West?

  I don't want to use it as a crutch because I know that some people are very dramatically affected by that. And I'm not trying to minimize the fact that it did affect me. But what it did to me is it introduced me to adult behaviors at a very young age. And when I touched that live wire of substances, I liked it.

• 1:15:53Ed Mylett?

  I have a man here who's become such a dear friend of mine and a trusted advisor. I've only had one other person on the show three times. So you are now breaking a record, brother. You are a ratings machine. So Dean Graziosi, welcome back to the show, my brother.

• 1:16:09Speaker 07

  So good to be here. And I have to tell you, the best, you're the most gracious host ever. First off, I really believe whatever it takes for you, before I tear, I thought what Munger and Buffett did was so good. I love those two guys. But before we get that, like whatever it takes, I'm just going to share, if you take nothing else from this podcast today, take this, whatever it takes, if it's listening to Ed Mylett's book, or Tony Robbins, or something from yourself, or something else, if there's something you read, if something is, if you pray, if you talk to God, if you go to church, it's different from everybody. But whatever it takes to keep you in a space of, I'm going to live into my inner purpose, I'm going to tap into my full potential, rather than playing small and playing scared, you figure out, this isn't a show about personal development, you can read Ed's book and lots of other things.

• 1:16:53Speaker 07

  But do something to keep you focusing on where you can go and not sit on your hands. I was with Tom Bilyeu two weeks ago, and he said, during times like this, people talk about fight or flight. He goes, that's not what happens here. It's the third F. They all freeze.

• 1:17:07Ed Mylett?

  So true.

• 1:17:07Speaker 07

  And I was like, wow, I got goose. I was like, that's right. So unfreeze yourself, whatever it takes. Secondly,

• 1:17:12Ed Mylett?

  Very good, brother. Very good.

• 1:17:14Speaker 07

  So, so the second thing, once you start realizing that we're not giving you that answer to him, saying, go find that answer. But the other thing, I love what Buffett said. He said, during a recession, during inflation. Invest in yourself. Get, get better at what you decide to do than anybody else. Cause if it's, he said Reichmarks or seashells, you'll just get more of the pie. So if it's a deflated dollar, when you used to get two, go get six because you're better at what you do.

• 1:17:39Ed Mylett?

  So true.

• 1:17:39Speaker 07

  I know it sounds so simple, but it's like, duh.

• 1:17:42Ed Mylett?

  It doesn't.

• 1:17:42Speaker 07

  Let me stop staring at the competition. Let me stop talking to my friends about how things go bad. You know, the conversation at your dinner tables are getting different. Be the only one that's saying, no, I'm going to find the gold in this downtime.

• 1:17:53Ed Mylett?

  Can I say something on that as well?

• 1:17:54Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 1:17:54Ed Mylett?

  I want to play off that with you. I'm big on this quote of separation season where I'll say, hey, it's the summertime. Everyone's flinching. This is where you hit the accelerator.

• 1:18:01Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 1:18:02Ed Mylett?

  You don't catch people in front of you when they're at full speed. It's harder. You can, but it's harder. You catch them when they flinch, they relax, they freeze.

• 1:18:09Speaker 07

  Yep.

• 1:18:09Ed Mylett?

  And that's their seasons. And usually it's, it's seasonal, meaning like, okay, August, right? People start to freeze or July, they're gone, they're flinching. Or Christmas time, everyone takes time off. Then there are economic cycles that are separation seasons. And I think that's where we are now. They're going to freeze. They're going to panic. They're going to buy into the collective group think of the world, which is this isn't the time to accelerate. This isn't the time to do it. And when they're going that way, you go the other way. The other thing that happens during these times, if you find your lane, you and I have both built tremendous wealth, buying assets in those times that were massively on sale. And so you have the accelerator of both your brand, your business doing well,

• 1:18:52Ed Mylett?

  and you acquiring things at super discounted prices potentially. So you have this double multiplier whammy.

• 1:18:59Speaker 07

  Okay, so let me ask you something. You've had so much incredible success. And if we laugh at each other, where we came from, similar backgrounds.

• 1:19:04Ed Mylett?

  Very similar. Dads, everything.

• 1:19:05Speaker 07

  But at this point, I feel beyond blessed with the success I've had. I know you do too.

• 1:19:10Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 1:19:10Speaker 07

  And amazing that the interview you just did, I hope it's your number, I hope the interview before me is your number one interview in history, right?

• 1:19:16Ed Mylett?

  Thank you.

• 1:19:19Speaker 07

  But I have a desire to work even harder right now because I know the opportunities that are coming.

• 1:19:24Ed Mylett?

  Me too.

• 1:19:24Speaker 07

  It's a mental, like, like I wish I could give it to everyone. Like, I'm like, how do I grind? How do I make another X, X, Y, and Z? Because I know that everything is on sale and everything's gonna be even more deeply discounted. So whatever it takes to motivate you, when everybody's sitting down, freezing, having negative conversations, you should be investigating, look where the puck is going, say, how do I accumulate more cash so I can buy things at a discount? Because when it shifts, that multiplier is unlike anything you could imagine.

• 1:19:52Ed Mylett?

  Hundred percent.

• 1:19:52Speaker 07

  You go from doing okay to, when people say, how you doing? You get that smile of like, "Yeah, I'm pretty alright." "I'm feeling okay."

• 1:19:58Ed Mylett?

  What's that look like for you right now? Like, are you, do you read certain things? Do you journal? Are you visualizing? Are you looking for problems to solve? Like, what's that look like for you?

• 1:20:07Speaker 07

  All, all the above. I've been, I've been geeking out on books, different books than I ever had before. Because, listen, we all like to learn.

• 1:20:14Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 1:20:14Speaker 07

  Right? And we all grow. Um, I'm keeping my mindset super strong, but I think the opportunities are gonna come so strong and we have to be mentally prepared.

• 1:20:24Ed Mylett?

  I think in times like these, you do need to invest in yourself and grow yourself. If you'd have told me back in 1987, or whenever the heck it was, that I got my personal power tapes and I read Unlimited Power by Awaken the Giant with Win and Tony's books, if you'd have told me someone like Dean Graziosi or Tony Robbins would give me their time for free, where I can learn from them, I'd have thought you were absolutely out of your damn mind. And so, a couple of things that I think you have to do during this window, is you gotta invest in yourself. And if you can surround and change your peer group instantly with the best in the world, you should do it. You and I were talking off camera. You and I are working on right now, me and you, to spend a full day together to strategize about our lives and our businesses. There's a bunch of things that I want to learn from you that you and I have talked about. And so, if someone can actually get that time

• 1:21:09Ed Mylett?

  with you.

• 1:21:12Ed Mylett?

  For free and with Tony Robbins, that is a monster win. The other thing I'll say is this, great people want to accept challenges. Great people want to be challenged even in their most difficult times. In fact, at this stage in my life, one of the frustrating things for me, Dean, is that, you know, it is a smaller circle. There's very few people who challenge me. So I love when I work out with a training partner, they challenge me, "Three more, three more." I'm like, "All right, you did three more, I'm doing one more." The power of one more, right, to be challenged. Today's special for me because I get to, I get to share with you, I just think one of the most remarkable people walking the earth. She's, she's an amazing woman. I just, as you know, I like her very much. And so, any chance I get a chance to, any opportunity to spend time with her is a

• 1:21:56Ed Mylett?

  blessing for me, and I know it'll be a blessing for all of you. You all know who she is. There's a lot of things I can say. She's a journalist, she's an author, Emmy Award winner, she was the First Lady of California, she's a philanthropist, but she's just a remarkable and good human being, and you're gonna feel her spirit today. So, I'm really grateful she's here. Maria Shriver, welcome to the show.

• 1:22:16Maria Shriver?

  Thank you, Ed. I'm kind of blushing.

• 1:22:20Ed Mylett?

  It's all true, and there's like 80 other things I can say. You mentioned self-confidence twice, pretty early on, and it's interesting. I would think that when people look at you, you come from a successful family. You're my dear friend, so I'm allowed to say this, you're beautiful, articulate, successful person. I would think self-confidence was really something you had. Is that something you've struggled with or had to work on yourself in your life?

• 1:22:43Maria Shriver?

  Yeah, I think anybody, I try to say to my kids, self-confidence, you have to earn self-confidence. You have to earn self-esteem. Nobody just bestows it on you and says, "Here it is, you know, take it and go." I think particularly if you are in a family where people are excelling at the level, they were excelling in my family, it's pretty big, you know, excelling. So, I was, people, pretty much everybody in my house and in my cousins' era, they were, everybody was running for president. So, you know, that's how people were excelling. So I think you, you have to, and I would adjust that to, maybe everybody in your family is a doctor,

• 1:23:28Maria Shriver?

  or a preacher, or, you know, a pastor, whatever it is, a real estate person. Everybody, I think, has to find their own self-confidence and earn it. And I was an only girl, uh, four brothers and I was raised in a very um testosterone dominated arena.

• 1:23:49Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 1:23:49Maria Shriver?

  Um, I, I knew that if I wanted to get my parents' attention, if I wanted to single myself out in this larger clan that I was in, I was gonna have to find my own thing. I was gonna have to work my ass off and I was going to have to develop my own self-confidence in who I was. Separate from being somebody's niece or daughter or cousin. Um, and that was a really driving force in my life. And um, has been, you know, for pretty much all my life, you know, that I would be my own person, um, my own name, my own uh, journey.

• 1:24:32Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 1:24:32Maria Shriver?

  And um, that took a lot for me to craft that out, but with it came self-confidence.

• 1:24:40Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, thank God you did that because I don't, I don't know that if you don't, I think you can't give somebody something that you're not experiencing. It's pretty difficult to give you, give the gift of that. And thank God you developed that because you ended up creating a family.

• 1:24:53Maria Shriver?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:24:53Ed Mylett?

  That was very similar in the sense of achievement and public achievement and those things. And I've met your children, one of them, Patrick, I know far better than all the other ones, but they all seem to have that same sense of contribution, making their own way. They've sort of modeled your, Maria has this very beautiful nuance of very strong, but a kindness that comes with it simultaneously.

• 1:25:16Maria Shriver?

  Thank you.

• 1:25:17Ed Mylett?

  And I think that's reflected in your children too, but they've all made their own way and are making their own way, even though they come from a family that's achieving. True, you probably had to instill that in them.

• 1:25:26Maria Shriver?

  Well, I, I tried to talk to them about that. I tried to acknowledge. That that was going to be challenging for them, that they had a very famous last name. They came from, they had famous parents, they came from kind of a long lineage and people would assume certain things about them and that I understood that, that I had come from the same place. That might be something their dad hadn't understood because I think it's very different when you're the one making the legacy.

• 1:25:58Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 1:25:58Maria Shriver?

  This is the one inheriting it and having to uphold it. And then trying to carve out your own version. And so I grew up in a legacy. I grew up with a family that said, here, look what we've done. Match it, deal with it, honor it, take care of it, uphold it. What are you going to do with it? And then I think Arnold built his, his own legacy, right? And so our kids have had to deal with like, okay, here it is. Do you want to honor it? Do you want to uphold it? Do you want to have anything to do with it? Do you want to be free from it? And so I've tried to have that conversation with them. You don't have to have anything to do with this if you don't want to.

• 1:26:40Maria Shriver?

  You can go off and do whatever you want to do. I think we were both very united in saying to them, you don't have to do what we're doing. You don't have to do what your grandmother, your grandfather did, but you have to do something.

• 1:26:55Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 1:26:56Maria Shriver?

  You have to find some way to give back to the world. You have to work. You have to develop a work ethic. You have to craft your own life, design your own life, but you don't have to carry

• 1:27:10Maria Shriver?

  what your dad's done, what your mom has done, what your grandmother, your grandfather have done. If you don't want to. If you do, great.

• 1:27:18Ed Mylett?

  I think, I mean, interrupt you, Maria, but I really think this is so important because the people that listen to the show by and large are people that are breaking, they're becoming the one in their family for the most part. I call it the one where you do sort of change your family tree forever, right? You're an achiever. And so most of you, you know, maybe you're not going to be the president or the governor, but you're the breakaway person in your family. And then if you're going to be raising children in that environment, this lesson's huge, that these conversations have to happen. I noticed even with my son Max, when he was younger, I started to sense this pressure. That I wasn't putting on him, but our conditions put on him that he had to live up to what dad did. Or if I have an average life, it's going to be miserable because of what I came from. And I remember having these conversations with him, very similar to what you've had.

• 1:28:03Ed Mylett?

  So you parents that are listening to this, that are the achiever in your family. This is a really, really big deal. And if some of you don't know, I mean, you know, Marie was was First Lady of California when Arnold was the governor. And then she's also a Kennedy and a Shriver. And so there's a lot going on in that family. And, uh, you know, when you have uncles that are the president of the United States, there's kind of a, it's kind of a big version of what we're describing in our lives. But I just wanted to ask you that. And on that, it's like, I'm going to go to your books because I, I just recommend everybody's, you should read these books, many of them. And by the way, you should read her Sunday paper every Sunday that comes out. It's awesome. It's, if you're a personal development person, there's so much richness in this experience.

• 1:28:46Ed Mylett?

  And Maria approaches it, she said testosterone earlier. She even reminds me sometimes dial that down a little bit, you know, that there's a, there's a, there's not a lot of, I think, often in self-help, personal development. I don't know what I would call it. I don't even really believe in these things, but sort of a feminine energy to the same topics. That brings a nuance and a perspective, don't you agree? That's different from someone else. And you bring that.

• 1:29:13Maria Shriver?

  Well, thank you. And I think I just wanted to pick up on your thing about you're speaking to, quote, the one. People who are the one in the family who are breaking away, the achievers. I think there's so many ways that we don't talk about to, quote, break away or break a cycle. And it doesn't always have to be in being the, quote, successful one. There are so many different ways to break a cycle of silence that might exist in a family. A cycle of shame that might exist in a family. A cycle of, um, you know, uh,

• 1:29:54Maria Shriver?

  Shame, anger, all of these things that exist in families. There's a way to break those cycles as well and be the one in that respect. So the one isn't necessarily the one making all the money. Right. It's the one who is following their path, I think, who has the courage and the bravery to chart their own course. And I think that's really, you know, when we talk about feminine strength. I think for, I grew up in a time, my mother was certainly an incredibly strong woman. Started Special Olympics, was tough, but she dressed like a man. She only had male friends. She went to work with a briefcase like a guy.

• 1:30:37Maria Shriver?

  She was fighting all the time to be at that table. She smoked cigars. She only just kind of, you know, she was a force, right? And I came into journalism when there were no women in it, right? And women were coming in and you had to wear a power suit and you had to work twice as hard. And if you had a baby, you had to come back in a week and you had to do a lot of things that perhaps this generation doesn't have to do. So I think what is the model of feminine, all encompassing feminine strength? And I try to speak a lot to the ideal of holding these qualities of tenderness and toughness,

• 1:31:18Maria Shriver?

  strength and sexiness, femininity and vulnerability, but also being aware that anger is in there, strength is in there, intelligence is in there, as is, you know, these other kind of more traditionally feminine qualities. And I think that's the conversation when we think about feminine power that I'd like to be having this generation and others to have. So it's kind of being able to take care of yourself, but also need someone else and lean on someone else and be able to celebrate your femininity and your sexuality. But also hold your ground and have boundaries. And these are things you learn through life,

• 1:32:02Maria Shriver?

  but that was not part of the conversation when I was in my twenties or thirties.

• 1:32:07Ed Mylett?

  By the way, I don't think, first off, everybody listening, you need to go rewind that part back and send that to your favorite woman not listening to the show right now. I, I, uh, by the way, I want to just say, I don't think it's being said right now very much, what you just said. Which is why you're so, so important. I, I think people know you, I, I know the multiple sides of you. Like, I think a lot of people are getting exposed to this side of you, maybe on my show, for the first time, this, this, this person who really reflects on life, really cares about human meanings. And I think there's, I don't know, I think one thing we share in common is like, we, we, we take our life seriously. I don't take myself, maybe sometimes I take myself too seriously, but I do take this gift of being here, pretty darn seriously. Like, I, I wanna,

• 1:32:52Ed Mylett?

  I always call it maxing out, but I, I wanna contribute as much as I can. I wanna grow as much as I can. I wanna, I wanna pause as much as I can at this stage in my life, too. That's become much more important. But one thing I did do, because my dad was good at this, my father could care less about material things, achievement. It was not even really discussed. It was, who are you going to be? Not what are you going to be? And I, that's something that my dad said over and over. So I'm researching more about my friend here. And I read this quote, he said, "I've learned that asking ourselves not just what we want to be", I'm like, this is my father said this to me, "But who do we want to be is important at every stage also of our lives." And she has this book called Just Who Will You Be, right?

• 1:33:35Ed Mylett?

  But would you talk about that? And this changes, Maria, wouldn't you agree, at different stages of our lives? But not enough people ask the question.

• 1:33:42Maria Shriver?

  I think absolutely. I think, you know, it's a good time to ask it coming out of this pandemic. We're all very different people than we were before this pandemic.

• 1:33:53Maria Shriver?

  How are we coming out? How are we taking the gift of coming out and going out into the world? What have we learned? How have we changed? How, um, what did we notice during that time? Right? Who checked in on us? Who did we check in on? Who turned out to be important? Uh, what turned out to be important? So I think it's, you know, I used to always say that, uh, I noticed growing up in a political family, it was the only profession that penalized you if you changed your mind. And still does, by the way.

• 1:34:25Ed Mylett?

  You're right.

• 1:34:26Maria Shriver?

  It doesn't allow for you to have been affected by life, to change your mind. You're always pointing, oh, you're a flip-flopper, you're a changer. And I don't want to, you know, to me, what's really troublesome, somebody at 50 who's exactly the same as they were at 30.

• 1:34:41Ed Mylett?

  Me too.

• 1:34:41Maria Shriver?

  That's a problem because that means that for 20 years, nothing made you think, nothing made you reevaluate, nothing impacted you. How could that be? How could that be? Right? And so like in that last book I wrote, I've been thinking, I write a lot about all the things that I was wrong about, that I've changed my ideas about. Um, because life has happened to me. Right? My parents are both dead. I got separated after being with one person for 34 years. My kids are grown up. They've left their house. I've achieved certain things in my journalism career that, you know, propelled me. So I've got to be different at this age than I was in my twenties.

• 1:35:25Ed Mylett?

  That was one of my questions, Maria. What is one thing you used to really believe about life that you no longer believe? Just one thing.

• 1:35:31Maria Shriver?

  Oh, my God. What, I mean, I used to think that, um, you know, weakness was kindness. I used to think that, uh, you know, being, uh, gentle was a sign of weakness. I used to believe, um, oh, my God, I have so many things I used to believe. I used to believe you had to earn, uh, your way into your parents' heart. I really believed that if I did well in my professional career that my parents would love me and if I didn't do well, they wouldn't. I was wrong about so many things. I believed that divorce was a huge sin. I believed that I grew up as a Catholic, you know, I believed that, you know, priests were infallible.

• 1:36:16Maria Shriver?

  I believed that women should be secondary citizens in the church. So today, I'm angry at my church. I believed that the Democratic Party was the only way. I resigned from the Democratic Party. I believed, you know, I never believed I'd be sitting here, single at my age. I would have thought that that was like, what's up with that girl? That she's single at that age, you know? That she not have anybody who loves her? What's wrong with her? So there's a lot of stuff that I thought if I were that 30 something year old, 35, 40 year old girl looking at me that I would have made a judgment about.