Locked In with Ian Bick - MrBeast Cop Exposes Truth About 100 Day Prison Challenge | Lenny Bradley

Episode Date: August 17, 2025

MrBeast locked me (a former criminal) and a former NYPD detective inside a prison for 100 days—here’s what really happened. In this exclusive interview, I sit down with my co-contestant Lenny Bradley to break down our experience surviving MrBeast’s viral 100-day challenge, how we each won $240,000, and what went down behind the scenes. From my past as a criminal who went to federal prison to sharing a cell with a retired cop, this is the unfiltered truth about one of MrBeast’s wildest social experiments. If you watched the video, you haven’t seen the full story—until now. Watch the MrBeast video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDv56whosPQ&t=13s #MrBeast #100DayChallenge #MrBeastPrison #NYPD #PrisonStories #LockedInWithIanBick #MrBeastChallenge #SurvivalChallenge Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick: https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en https://ianbick.com/ Get 50% off the Magic Mind offer here: https://www.magicmind.com/IANB50. #magicmind #mentalwealth #mentalperformance Presented by Tyson 2.0 & Wooooo Energy: https://tyson20.com/ https://woooooenergy.com/ Use code LOCKEDIN for 20% OFF Wooooo Energy Buy Merch: http://www.ianbick.com/shop Timestamps: 00:00 Meeting After 100 Days Locked In 02:24 First Impressions and Building a Podcasting Brand 04:56 Advice, Growth, and Podcasting Insights 07:04 Lenny’s Journey: From NYPD to Mr. Beast 13:54 How the Mr. Beast Prison Video Began 20:19 100 Days Behind the Scenes: Real Challenge, Real Emotions 25:25 Mental Struggles, Reflection, and Life Lessons 32:10 Casting Stories & Praying for Opportunities 39:39 Finding Purpose After the Challenge 46:40 Changing Perspectives and the Impact of Solitary 56:27 Behind Bars: Reflections on the Criminal Justice System 01:02:39 Spiritual Growth and Life After Mr. Beast 01:09:18 Physical Transformation: Fitness and Food 01:16:20 Biggest Irritations and Life in Close Quarters 01:22:39 Day 99: The Final Solitary Challenge 01:26:19 Friendship, Looking Forward & Wrapping Up Powered by: Just Media House : https://www.justmediahouse.com/ Creative direction, design, assets, support by FWRD: https://www.fwrd.co Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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and a former NYPD detective spent 100 days locked inside a prison built by Mr. Beast, the biggest YouTuber in the world? I sat down with my co-contestant Lenny Bradley to break down our insane journey, how we survived the 100-day challenge, what it was really like behind the scenes,

winning $240,000 each, and his first impression of me. You don't want to miss this one. Lenny, welcome to Lockton, man. It's so crazy that we were in the Mr. Beast video together. I was describing everything I do for work. And now here we are sitting here a couple months later. Bro, I mean, I'm, you're savage, bro.

You're absolutely savage. When you first told me, obviously when you first meet a person, get the name, you ask them what they do. You know, you told me that you had a person. podcast. I was thinking it was something very small, you know, just something you did as a hobby. But as time went on and you started telling me what it is that you had going on and what you've built and you haven't sponsors and you were able to give me advice on how to build mine, I was like, yo, who, like who am I sitting across from right now? Like, this is crazy.

Because I've always wanted to podcast and I have, but I always treat it as a hobby or something that I just do for fun. I didn't think that I'd be able to monetize, make money from it. So to be able to be presented with the possibilities that can come from it by someone that is deep in it and making it happen was amazing.

And you were super casual about it. It wasn't any braggadocious or ego tour or anything like that. So I was just like, this is amazing. And just being here today and you shore me everything, I couldn't wipe the smile off of my face. Because for you to explain everything that was going on

and what you had, I'm like, yo, what kind of time is this dude on to be able to build out a prison cell in his studio and got Mike Tyson as a sponsor? Like, that's wild. And just seeing everything, bro, and picturing it in my head and seeing your videos, I've been stalking you. I've been stalking you because you dropped so much game

And then when I saw how professional it looked and just how good you are at being able to interview and draw out such dramatic stories from people, I was just like, now I see why you've become successful, you know? And walking around and seeing all that you've done, all of your guests,

and your level of hospitality is unlike anything I've ever experienced. You know, even with being in the challenge, it was cool. You know, I didn't get to see the B Studios or anything like that. So this is like my version of being able to see something similar or you want to come up. And this is like, I want to do whatever it takes to be able to emulate something similar to what it is that you have done. And so I'm, I'm proud of you, man. I mean, you've built this before.

I even knew you, but to kind of see you as like a brother slash son. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like a brother slash son, younger brother slash son. And then to come here and be like, yo, this. We definitely have an interesting relationship because I've come to look at you as like a father figure, but also we're bros too. Yeah. Like it has that brotherly type love.

And for the audience that's listening this episode is a little bit different. today. This is the day after the Mr. Beast video dropped. I spent 100 days in prison with Lenny, who's a former cop. You guys got to go check out that episode on YouTube if you haven't seen it already. And today we're just talking about our experience on there. I think it'll be really cool for the audience to see this afterwards to have this conversation. Because a lot of the contestants that do these types of things don't have a podcast or haven't been on social media already. So what I find interesting is that I already have this whole brand created around prison and I'm doing this. This is my everyday life. I mean, we went upstairs. You saw the prison cell. That was created before

the Mr. Beast thing. I had the deodorants. I had the toothbrushes. I had all the things we used in the thing, which is probably one of the reasons why I got casted because I showed the casting people that whole set. But that's all stuff like me and you talked about during the course of the 100 days. And for me, I thought it was really important to tell you as much as I could about how to do things because I didn't have that when I first started. Everyone wanted to gatekeep or there was not information out there. There wasn't chat GPT at the time. There was all these things I didn't know how to do and I learned on my own. So it's important to be able to give that back to not only you, but the guests that come on the show. Whenever we have a guest that comes on the show that wants to start a

podcast or wants to get into content, we always give them game and put them on and let them use a second studio over here. So it's mutually beneficial. Yeah, man. It's truly a blessing. I tell people all the time, I've always wanted to do content creation and podcasting, like I said, before going into that challenge and leaving law enforcement, I did 17 years in a New York City Police Department. And I left three years before receiving a full pension because I knew I was called by God to do something else. and I thought that calling was for me to do real estate. So I went all in with that. And I had some highs and some lows. I would say more lows than highs.

The biggest low was being robbed by my business partners for $100,000. And it put me in a huge slump. It set me back in a major way. but a large part of my journey is having faith and focusing on my purpose. Fast forward to me continuing to post videos or constantly posting videos on Instagram and then being reached out via DM to be a part of the Mr. Beast Challenge. and then to be placed in there with somebody that creates content full-time that is and was openly willing to share everything is a blessing. And it really just streamlined things to show me what God needed me to do and who he needs me to be.

the experience and being picked out of thousands of other cops that are on social media is wild. Then to be in there with somebody, once again, that is killing it, and to be able to talk to you about this stuff, what camera to use. You know what I'm saying? Like, what should I talk about? How do I load up videos? How do you build traction? How do I make myself go viral?

And to be able to speak to you about that, it's no mistakes. And I think that's what we really first bonded over, too. first day because there's, I mean, we spent 2400 hours together over 100 days and that gets put into a 30 minute video. People aren't going to see the full conversations that we've had. But that first day, I mean, really the first, I think two or three days because we didn't make anything. We didn't build anything. We didn't have activities. We just talked. We sat at that table that first day when we were waiting for dinner for like six hours and we just talked. And a lot of people don't realize I'm super introverted. Like I'm good on camera with this and I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm,

outspoken and I can do these things, but meeting new people, like we were talking about, like, going to a bar and meeting people organically, that's not me. I've never been good at that. So to put me in a situation where I don't know this person at all, and I have to sit there and make conversation, it's challenging, at least for me to do that. And it just felt very organic. And we were able to talk and hit it off. And a lot of it had to do with, I think, that you were interested in my stuff. I was interested in your stuff. And I'd interviewed cops before. So I think that helped me as well, that it was a familiar situation. I'm sure a big question like people will have on my side of this type of content is, did I have any issue being

with a cop? And I have no problems with law enforcement. I interview law enforcement. So being presented with a cop, which, by the way, I had no idea it was going to be a cop. We didn't know until the blindfolds came off what the situation was. I had never met you in my life. I didn't know of you. I didn't know anything. And so to me, what people will think is going to be a hard part of the aspect, that was very easy for me. Right. Because I don't get involved in like the, the politic aspect of cops versus inmates or this and that. To me, it didn't matter.

And that just goes to show the Beast team casted it appropriately because if they got the wrong inmate from the prison content world, that would have been a problem on day one. Right, right. Yeah. I had no clue either. I tried to drum up as much as I could just to kind of plan and to get an idea what was going to happen. And I had no idea until we were in the trailer and I saw, I saw correction officer uniforms. And I was like, all right, all right. I'm going to prison.

I'm definitely going to prison. I talked to my wife. And I was like, yeah, I think this video is going to be about prison. and, you know, I said, I love you. I said, I'll be talking to you, and that was it. And then I start putting on the uniform. They had me put on the uniform, blindfolded me, and transported us to the location.

They placed me in a van with you. What was it, like a van or a truck or something like that? I think they kept moving us around. We were in a car, then we went into a go-car or like a golf cart, and then from the side-by-sides that we'd see them whipping around. And then from there, we went into an... actual prison van, which we're not even going to see or we're seeing for the first time once the video comes out. But we had no idea what this van looked like. We're blindfolded. And they just said,

don't talk to the person. There's someone there. Don't talk to him. Exactly. And I thought you were an old white guy because you said like, okay, and like a deep voice. I was like, okay, I'm with like some old white guy. That was my first initial impression. What was your first impression when you saw me for the first time? You knew I was a criminal. Oh, man. My first impression was when they took us out of the van and being that we were blindfolded there was a little bit of space under the blindfold so I'm trying to see whatever it is that I can or I can really see is my feet my legs and then if I looked over to my right I looked over to my left I could see you but what I saw were your arms and I saw a bunch of tattoos on them I was like oh man so as I'm looking under the

blindfold, I'm trying to make sure you don't have any like crazy Aryan paraphernalia on your arms or something like that. You know, no swat stickers, nothing crazy. So I'm thinking to myself, who, like, I'm in here with a criminal. This is definitely going to be a criminal. I just got to make sure that I keep myself composed. I don't want to think anything. I don't want to think anything crazy.

too soon, right? And we walk into the prison. And once we walk into the prison, they take off our blindfolds. And I look over at you. First time I'm looking at your arms again. Then I look up. And my guard just dropped. I was like, okay.

Like, he looks like a good guy. He looks like a cool dude. And it just made me feel super. relaxed. It's almost like the same scenario I told you about when I went to the police academy. They assign everybody a company, which is pretty much a class. And they have you in an auditorium. And with being in that auditorium, there are a bunch of police officers that are instructors that are standing at the edge of the role. And whatever company that you're associated with, that's the role that you go to. But when they called my company and told us to,

to go to a certain role, my instructor was standing there. And as soon as I saw him, my whole guard just dropped once again. It was the same type of deal. And I knew that I was going to be a right. So I say this to say that once I saw you and I could see your demeanor, I was like, all right, I'm going to make it through these hundred days. And I know that this is going to be interesting. But I felt nice.

I felt calm. and I wasn't really worried about anything. But the tattoos, they did throw me off at first. Yeah, people always say my body doesn't match my face. I got ripped for that all the time. Like, if you looked at me for the bottom up, like if you're zooming again and then going up, it doesn't match it. You know?

I'm a little bit more built, and then my face is just like this baby face. I grew facial hair for the first time ever, and I was like, do you letting me, I want to grow up the whole 100 days, and we only, like, trimmed it up once you trimmed me up at day 50. Yep. But other than that, I was looking wildhood.

I got out of there with the big beard. I'm back to baby Facey. And when I posted the photo, everyone was just lighting me up over it. They were not happy with the pushy. They weren't with it. We tried doing the, we tried doing the, the Schofield. The Michael Schofield. You had the Goatee.

Honestly, I think that made you look, I think that made you look a little more serious. Yeah, I'm seeing all of the, like, the leaked footage from streamers and stuff. Because they started coming in, like, right around that day 50. So where I was already caught, I had the short. hair like really short. I hadn't had that at short in a while and then the goatee and it looked a little scary, you know? Yeah. I think he was looking, you was looking like your part of being, you know. Crack a Cayman Jack margarita and taste your escape. It's America's number one for a reason. Camen Jack is a premium mall beverage with flavors. Please drink

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Yeah. It's so interesting watching like all the leaked footage because we were living in that, you know, and we would call it the dog and potty show. What the streamers would come by. The dog and potty show. It's the dog and potty show. I think my favorite one was the guy that builds a set. That's that.

And we're barking. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. We love to bark when Jimmy came in. Yeah, I like Jimmy's reaction. He was like, all right, all right, guys. We used to love barking at Jimmy. You know, he, uh, we, we had a beef with Warden Jimmy. So that was our way of getting back at him whenever we saw him.

And I think that's what the audience is going to see a lot, too, is me arguing with Jimmy so many times. I just, I went in, I wasn't afraid at all. Like, I just fought with Jimmy every challenge I possibly could. and it's something different, you know, than what I think the audience that normally watches his videos is going to be used to. Yeah, I liked it because after you would do that,

compared to the other videos that we would see, sorry other contestants, but everybody was pretty, it seemed like they were either timid or it was just like, okay, let me go along with it. But you, it's just always pushback. It was always pushback. And I would look like, yo, this dude is crazy, bro. Like, this dude is crazy for real, for real.

But I thought it was awesome because even after the challenge, we were still talking about the fact that you were going back and forth with them. And the funniest one was with the TV, bro. When they wheeled out the TV, you were like, what did Jimmy? Are you freaking delirious? Like, that was raw emotion. There was no acting with that. I was just looking at you.

I was like, yo, this dude is wild. Yeah, so something that everyone needs to know is that none of this is scripted. None. Like, they just, they, like, Jimmy shows up. You're on mic and camera 24 hours a day. There's no, like, you're filming during the day. And then at night, you get to use a phone or a laptop. Nope.

I didn't get to talk to my family for 80 days. What I begged him for that FaceTime on day 80. That's right. But other than that, there's no, like, when I got dogged on day 50 for the visit, when I went to solitary, I'm thinking, okay, they're going to, we're doing this, we're doing this, and then they're just going to show me the family. They got the cut, you know, it's cool. Hours passed by.

Nothing. Everything is real, legit. There's nothing. It's legit. And for y'all that are in the comments, oh yeah, I could do 100 days. A hundred days, it's going to be nothing. I'm getting free food.

I'm doing this. Yeah, all right. Yeah. When you're in there and you have no contact with the world and you're missing your family if you do have a family and you're not eating what you want. to eat. It's hard. When you're not sleeping in a scenario or an environment that you're used to, it's not an easy feat. So the guys and the gals in the comment section that think that you're

going to be able to do something like this if you do get selected, you may be able to, but it's not a cakewalk like you think it is. It's truly legit. There's no, there was no, all right, every few days or so you get to call your family, you get to see them. Everything was 100% legit. And I'm kind of glad that they made it that way, even though it was tough, because it shows our true emotion. It brought out our true emotion. When I saw my family and I was crying and I covered up my face, that's raw emotion from me not seeing them, from me wondering how they were. and a lot of people might not think that these videos are real,

but I'll tell you what, ours was 100% real. So from my perspective, when I got casted in it, I had one never seen a Mr. Beast video ever. I started watching him. I knew of him, and I started watching him once I got casted, and I was watching the 100-day videos specifically, because I knew this was going to be a 100-day video, but they didn't say exactly what.

They just said it's more than one person, and you're going to be away for probably 100 days. But I had a feeling it was going to be prison related because why else would they reach out to me when there's all these other influencers in the world? So it's got to be prison related. And then when I got to the trailer, I saw the orange jumpsuit and the tidy whiteies

and the shoes. I'm like, oh, my God, I'm back. Like, they made it so real having that all, you know, put out and whatnot. And so when I saw that, I was like, okay you know what this is going to be easy i'm going back to prison when i first got cast and i told you know like matt and a couple of my friends um they were like the hardest part is going to be for you to have to convince the guy that you're with to stay and i thought it i knew i thought all along

it was going to be an ordinary citizen because that would make the most sense i don't think they were going to put two inmates together right had no idea was ever going to be a cop i think that makes it even better yeah um i was thinking maybe a prison guard but i thought definitely an ordinary citizen so when I got to the trailer and I saw that outlayed, because we hadn't seen the prison or anything, then I was like, okay, I was right. This is prison related. I got this, you know, just like my friend said, hardest thing's going to be to convince a guy to stay. Little did I know is that you would have a way easier time than me.

I think those first 10 days where I almost quit, probably 10 times. And then all throughout the video, I want to quit. Like, just, like, I'm so glad I didn't. Yeah. And I think what really kept me going was not necessarily the money. it was more about what this video could do for me afterwards. Right. And I wasn't going to destroy the relationship with the Beast team by just leaving in the video not getting posted or just, I just knew how important this video was to my content and to the bigger picture of things and really breaking down the barriers that people and the feelings people have against inmates because this is a whole different perspective of it.

And I knew also going into it that I could never, like my actions had to be based on not being the bad. guy, which is how I played the game throughout the thing. Sure. And we see that in the first challenge when Jimmy has me almost in tears, making a decision to spend 25 grand to get the wreckyard. And I literally almost cried. Like my face is getting red and you guys will see it. It just, it was really emotional because I didn't want to go into this being that bad person,

that everyone's going to expect that criminal to be. And you see that all the way through day 99 when we're faced with that last challenge. Right. because they pit us against each other the whole entire time. Every challenge, every day, it's me versus you. They never let us do anything as a team except for the rock. But even in a way, it was me versus you too. But, yeah, I did not realize I was going to have the harder time than you during this experience.

Yeah, I found out to be very ironic as well. But if you don't recall not more than probably 10 minutes. after taking off those blindfolds, when we went to the back to look at that money that was in that tank, you and I, we shook each other's hands and we agreed to not screw each other over, and we said that we were going to push through no matter what. I appreciate you for standing on your word,

and I'm sure you feel the same, which is why I'm here right now. But yeah, for me, The only thing that got me through is my faith. Praying every day, praying multiple times throughout the course of the day, having three kids at an 11-year-old, an 8-year-old, and a 3-year-old, and a wife did not make it easy at all. And for you, I was like, bro, you were in a federal prison.

Like, you had to worry about, as you say, getting your buns taken. you had to worry about things like that and you had to worry about, you know, extortion. You told me stories about extortion as well and just really not having that option to leave. So I thought that you would be able to bang it out easily. But what I would have to say is we're seeing everything that you built here and what you have going on here and your success. I can get it. Like I get it because you're well within your purpose. So I was like, there'll be a lot of times I'm like, yo, this dude, like he's been through prison.

Like, how is he so miserable right now? But I get it. Like, now I see. Yeah, I didn't realize. So like when I went to prison the first time, it was like a break from reality. I was in such a bad situation. And I think that's comparable to you doing this video. You got a break from life, a break from your situation.

So when I went to prison the first time, I had that break. And I was all I could think. about was rebuilding after, which is also dreadful at the same time because it's like, that's a lot you have to do. I get out, I grind, I rebuild, and then I stumble upon this world and I do this, and then I never really had a time to step away from it and think about everything that happened after prison and life the last few years. Sick, because it's been seven years now. So doing this video, you have all that time to reflect and you're pulled away from the hustle and bustle out of it, and then you're like, wow, I really do have a great life that I have way better than I could have

ever a dream, the life that I was, you know, really thinking about when I was in real solitary in prison that I wish I would have one day. And that hurts, you know, being pulled away from that. When you find your purpose and you're pulled away from that and you're stuck in an environment, like the Mr. Beast video where you're literally doing nothing, I'm a guy that's like, go, go, go doing all these things every day to now this. That was the most mentally draining. It wasn't like the food or the different things like that or the bed or things. like that, those all compile onto it. Sure.

It was really the mental of not being able to do what I love. And I think that's comparable to like, we take someone like Jimmy, Mr. Beast, I don't think he would be able to do a hundred days. I mean, he would if he had to, but mentally. It's his brand. Exactly. That's what he does. So a hundred days, not living the life he lives now, I think would be so hard for

him to get through. Yeah. That's a, that's a huge point that you bring to life. Like, for me, I wasn't happy with where I was going. I was happy being around my family, spending time with them. But I didn't feel like I was within my purpose yet. I was still in search of it. And with me trying to get into real estate and having, you know,

eventually I did have some wins, but I still didn't feel fulfilled. And I was getting depressed. And I prayed to God. I said, give me something different. Change my life up a little bit. You know, change my life up a bit. And just give me a different experience. And I was reached out to by a freelancing casting agent through TikTok.

And little old me on TikTok, I have about, 2,500 followers, nothing crazy, but I was very consistent with what I was posting in regards to law enforcement. Like I said, there's so many other police officers out there that have huge followers, 1.5, 300,000, and stuff like that. So I was reached out to by Helen. And she said, hey, how you doing? My name is Helen. I am a freelancer for Mr. Beast. We have a video that I think we might be interested in having you on, would we be able to set up an interview? And I said, yeah, right.

I was like, you're, I was like, this is a scam. And I said that to it. I was like, there's no way in the world. So I just closed out the app. I go back maybe two days later, look at my messages, and did she mention something about it again? And I was like, you know, just stop the nonsense. Like this is not, this, there's no way in the world you work for Mr. Beast, right?

So she was like, what do I need to do to show you? And I was like, well, do you have a LinkedIn? Let me see your, your pages. Do you have a resume that you can send me? Like, I was just asking for all these things because as a police officer, that's kind of what I'm used to doing. Like, I just need to know everything. I've heard so many stories about people being scammed on social media.

And I was like, I'm not letting it. happened to me, especially after being robbed by my business partners for $100,000. But she was very consistent, and she was like, what do I need to do to show you that I'm legit? And I said, maybe we could set up a FaceTime call because we'll be dealing watches and stuff like that, Rolexes, Automarpagays, Paddocks. The way we usually vet people is through FaceTime, if we're not in front of. of them we asked for the ID and things like that on top of my law enforcement experience is other ways to vet people right so she was like I'm not available

for a FaceTime call but you can call me I said alright I'm at my son's basketball game I'll call you right after so I call and she's like hey is this Lenny and I'm like yeah it's Lenny I was like you expect my call she was like yeah you know you just hit me up on TikTok so I figured it'll be you and I was like yeah just tell me a little bit about this the situation She was like, yeah, we're interviewing right now for a Mr. B's video, and we thought that you might be a good candidate. Are you available for an interview in about another hour or so? And I said, yeah, for sure.

I was like, Zoom call. Like, how's it going to work? And she was like, yeah, it'll be a Zoom call. So I say, okay, cool. An hour passes by, and sure enough, she's 100% legit. So she just, she asked me a lot of questions about my career. I worked as a police officer. I worked at East Harlem for 17 years in New York City

in Manhattan to be specific in the 23rd precinct. And just gave us stories about my family, told her a little bit about them. And I said, you know what's funny is for Christmas? And I didn't know much about Mr. Beas either. The only thing I knew about Mr. Bees is that my kids loved them. I probably watched like half a video or something like that before but these dudes were going crazy especially my son maxwell that's my guy i mean my son kamari is my

guy too my daughter but maxwell he's the one that was going crazy about these mr beast toys dad i want this toy i want that toy da da da da now i knew mr beast was the man like i knew he was the guy on youtube that everybody wanted to be associated with and had the most subscribers and stuff like that So I told my wife, I said, let's get them these toys for Christmas. But I was born in the 80s. So Ninja Turtles, Thunder cats, you know, for the ladies, cabbage patch dolls, Barbies, and all of that. Like, those are collectibles. If I had toys from that era that I never opened right now, they would be worth a lot of money.

So my mentality was like, this guy is the big. biggest YouTuber in the world that he's making toys, my wife is going to buy a few for these for my kids. Let me save a couple because I could see them being worth something down the line and maybe I'll make some money from them. So we got a little more in the mail than I got a little more in the mail than I expected. My wife ordered maybe like three or so. and she was like, do you think I should return on three? And I was like, no, let's just keep one.

I was like, just return to just keep one. For some reason, I bought this box into my office. And every morning, the box with the toy, and every morning I would pray. Every morning I would pray for God to give me an opportunity to help me in my real estate journey and to just help me find a way to provide for my family until, I get my pension from being a police officer. It's something that's aligned with what it is that his will is for me. And during the interview with Helen, I said, I told her the story of how I was saving this Mr. Beast toy because I thought it would be worth something one day.

So I go under the desk and I pulled the toy out of the box and I hold it up. and I said there's no mistake or no coincidence the fact that I'm being given this opportunity and that I've been saving this toy here and I have the opportunity to possibly go and be in a challenge and I was saving this because I thought maybe I'll be able to make some money from it in the future but now I have an opportunity to make money from it sooner than later because my son Maxwell wanted this toy and I found the value in it. So I think the combination of me praying in that room

and having faith and asking God for something that I thought I should be doing but him directed me to what I really should be doing and having that toy there it was almost like some sort of manifestation that I wasn't aware of. I love that. And I think a lot of people don't realize

Mr. Beast is very, he pays attention to the person's backstory when he's casting for this and what they're going to do with the money and how it can change their life. Like if we both set on the casting call that we came from, like, rich families, everything was good, we're going to go spend it on Corvettes. I don't think we would have been casted in it. He's looking for that arc, especially with this type of video. And you had that rock bottom arc and I had that rock bottom arc and it was both life changing for us in those ways. my money went to restitution, your money went to rebuilding your life and your family and what you plan on doing with content and everything like that too. So I think our stories, when you told

me that story, I was like, wow, because you told me this exact story you just told there during the video. And I knew just my story of every little thing of how I went to prison. Like if I never went to prison, I never would have been casted in this video with the largest YouTuber in the world. Right. And so when you just look at that, It's like everything happens for a reason. And something I really like to that I've been thinking about recently is me and you always are late night. We did these late night talks when we took our mics off. We had pillow talk, you know, just like, you're in your bunk.

I'm in my bunk. And we would always talk about girls, like relationships and stuff. Because I always expressed to you that I wanted someone. You know, I told you just about my life and everything and how I really wanted to find that person. And you gave me a lot of guidance through that throughout the day or throughout every day. And I remember putting in my journal, like, because we journaled every day, what I was looking for in that person. Little did I know that, you know, a couple weeks after getting out of the video, I found that person. You know, and you're going to meet her today when you see it. But it just when we go to Stanziados, but it's just crazy how that works. Like literally every single thing I put in the that journal, she checks all the boxes. And I texted you last week. You probably thought I was delusional. I was like, bro, I found the girl I'm going to marry. Expedia and visit Scotland invite you to come experience the beauty that awaits in Scotland.

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The Four Seasons is back for Season 2, starring Tina Faye, Will Forte, Coleman Domingo, Marco Calvani, Carrie Kenny Silver, and Erica Henningson. After a difficult year, your favorite group of friends continues their tradition of vacationing together, now with a baby in tow. From the Jersey Shore to upstate New York and Italy, their getaways are sure to take unexpected turns where comedy ensues. Watch the four seasons May 28th only on Netflix. Oh, that's wild. Do you remember, like, during the course of the challenge, one of the books actually spoke about how this man wrote down the exact woman

that he wanted to marry? Darren Hardy. Yeah. Was that the compound effect or the other one, the entrepreneur one? I think it was the compound effect one. I forgot. It was one of them because we read every day. We read those books.

Yeah. But yeah, he did write that down and he found that person once he kind of found himself too. Yeah. Because I think the Mr. Beast video really helped me find myself and what I value. And I started like when I got out of the Mr. Beast video, I was hopping on dates. I was talking to people. And then I was like, this is kind of breaking all the rules. that I sat during the video minus dating apps.

I was like, Lenny, I'm never going on another dating app. I've held to that. What about the spreadsheet? So we have a running joke because this man is super organized while we were in there. He would talk about, yeah, I got a spreadsheet for this. I got a spreadsheet for that. And he was saying how when he was dating, that he would kind of put his dates into a schedule. Into his calendar.

It's his calendar. Like his Apple calendar, his Google calendar, just like he does. his bookings for his podcast or whatever the case may be. And I was like, oh, do you have a spreadsheet prepared for when you get out of here? How many dates you be going on? What the girls look like, their height, their eye color, stuff like that. So we used to joke about that all the time. Yeah, but so I was doing that.

I went on a couple more, went on a few dates. And then when I met this girl, like, I just knew I'd never wanted to talk to anyone else again. So I caught everyone off and just started focusing on her. I didn't care that it was only like the first. couple dates. Like we, the first time I hung out with her, we stayed up till 7 a.m. in the morning. And then we went out to dinner the next night. And we were just talking that whole time. We're playing Nintendo and stuff. And it's just been so much fun. Yeah, she played, we played, we've been playing Nintendo Switch. We play Mario Party with Maddie Ice. I love that, like, the three of us

have become good friends. And, uh, you know, we're recording this a couple, a few weeks before the Mr. Beast video. So I'm, uh, putting a lot into it. That's how I know because this is already going to be at that point, like almost two months into me and her, you know, seeing each other by the time this comes out. So it's a big bet that this will all work out. Otherwise, I'm to look it up. But I'm pretty confident, you know, you just know. And you'll get to meet her today. And you'll give that. But she's just, she's just so special. And I just really think I found my person. And every day has been great. Like we're like inseparable, just talking to each other and just everything I said I wanted to you during that challenge.

was able to find, which is just so interesting how life works. And I also think about timing, like if I had met her before the Mr. Beast video and then went away, would that have worked? I think a lot of things, if a lot of things happened before the Mr. Beast video and then I went away for three months, you know, life's just different, you know, after that. You just like, I mean, it's been a struggle to get my sleeping schedule back on track. Yeah, bro. Things like that. Yeah. But also there's a lot of blessings, too. Like I was so focused on saying yes to everything and talking to everyone and my phone and this and that and now my phone's drier than the Sahara Desert because I didn't answer so many people for months, which is good. I'm glad. And Matt really

stepped up to the plate to handle everything. And a lot of people don't realize that when I was gone, we stayed up all night, scheduled all the episodes out, edited all of them. I stayed up for like almost 48 hours to get them already. And people didn't even realize it was gone because episodes are still coming out. So I say that to say that during the Beast video, Every day I'm thinking about is Matt making the social media post. Yeah. Is everything going up? Like, because we didn't get any insider information.

It's not like they were telling us, yeah, everything's going smoothly. Your content's getting posted. I had to worry about that every day. Yeah. Doing this video could have totally, could have been a blessing, but also a curse in the sense where if I lost my whole platform, if things didn't get uploaded, if whatever happened, you know. So that was also heavily weighing on me every single day of that video, which also made it challenging. Yeah, that makes sense. That makes a lot of sense.

I just want to double back to what you were saying about writing things down. And I even presented a few things to you that you saw come to light during the course of the challenge. How when we were breaking down the rock, how I wrote down through the power of Jesus Christ, we'll break this rock within so-and-so day, you know, and I wrote it 21 times. There's a reason why I wrote it 21 times because it's like you have 666 for the devil, 777 represents Christ. So seven times three is 21. And I wrote that 21 times and we broke that rock within the amount of days that I wrote down

on that pad. So what we write down and what we review and read over and over again and truly believe it's going to happen, it does. And I just kept trying to tell you that. I kept trying to show you that. even when I would read the Bible, you know, like that was, you saw that was a huge part of me getting through the challenge or just a part of my journey as a whole. And I just felt with so much excitement whenever I would see something that we would talk about,

like I just felt like I always had to present it to you. Like, Ian, I just need you to see this. I need you to see the way that God works in my life. and I don't know where you are in your spiritual journey right now, but you meeting your girlfriend or the love of your life, as you say, at this point. I think once again there's no mistakes. I think that it is what he needs and where you need to be, you know. How did your opinion of me change from day one to day 100?

So what it is that I thought of you from day one to day 100 is I realized that you had a dark side to you too. I realized that once you became used to the setting and once you realized that you weren't able to do what your purpose was, while in there and not seeing your dad, not seeing your friends that weighed very heavy on you. And I didn't expect that because you were very good at being able to remain happy and joke around. So when day 50 happened, I realized, like, even though you kind of joked through it. And once again, I do thank you for just being solid

and letting me see my family because that, like, that to me is a gift and I'm always going to have loyalty just off the strength of that. But beforehand, we would always joke about how you would not pay any money to see your family. Right? And not only that, I was always very hopeful to see mine

and I felt like every time a challenge came up where I thought that it would relate to be seeing my family or you seeing your family. He was like, no, I don't think it's that. Even the day of that challenge where I got to see my family or families did come. You were like, no, I don't think it's that. So I kind of felt that you didn't care about that. I didn't think that was a big deal for you.

So when it actually became that day and you didn't see your family, your demeanor changed substantially. And I was like, okay, this guy does have feelings. This guy does have emotions and he does care about his family. And it's not just about his, for me, I thought for you was just about grind, grind, grind, right? It was just like, I just want to get home. I just want to work. I just want to get down to the nitty gritty.

And then I realized what you finally did get that phone call with your mother and father. After 80 days, I was like, this dude, there's more to him than that. You know, and that made me happy to see. Yeah. That it wasn't just about your business. It wasn't just about your success. It wasn't just about your podcast and Ian Bick in his journey. it was about you really love these people and you're not seeing them, it's hurting you.

And that is when I was like, even though, like, and there were some times where I had to convince myself not to take it personal because you just shut down on me. Like you just clamped up and I was like, damn, what did I do? I was like, does he regret letting me see my family? You know, like, is he mad at me? Because maybe I should have jumped in and let him see his. Does he hold that against me? And I had to pray about it. I had to pray about it.

Like, I was, it was just being you there. We were so used, we built up this friendship. And we were so used to talking to each other, joking around. And then there were days where, like, I write down, you probably said like five words like as a whole five to ten words and I was like Lennie you ever done anything wrong um you're still being a good friend to him and uh but then sometimes I would get pissed at you you know because I would feel you'd be negative or you say something I'd be like you know I just be like what's wrong with this dude but then I was like

I can't judge me being a man of God like you let me see you let me see you let me see you see my family, bro. So how could I be upset with you for the way that you feel? I'm not in your shoes. And I had to honor that, bro. I really did. And when I would take those things personal, I said, not only did he let me see my family,

this dude got me books. That was the reason why you weren't able to see you because of the library and smuggling the books out. And the first thing that you did was you got me a Bible. The very first night we got it. We pulled off the heist. pulled off the ice and you got me a Bible, but I was crying about a Bible from day one, and you delivered on that.

So, on top of my family, I would have to say that is another portion of my loyalty to you and just always, you're always my brother and, you know, my son to some extent. Yeah, I think for me, like, I wanted, I kept saying, like, I don't think it's about the family or I don't want to pay because in my mind, like, I compared it to that one video I watched where he made them. Like I hadn't seen the adventure in the wild video, so I didn't know it would have been a thing where only one person got to see the family. I just compared it to the solitary one where they had to pay for a family. And in my mind, because this is something we both said from day one, like we want to leave here with as much money as possible. And then obviously we changed

our minds throughout the video because we knew we had to spend money to make it fun and exciting and do different things. And I think that blessed us in the end because we ended up pretty much back to even, you know, minus 20 grand. But I was thinking like, okay, I need to get the most amount possible here. And they're going to leverage family against us because you wanted to see your family. So if I'm thinking, okay, I'm not going to see my family and put that out there, then they won't, maybe they'll throw us a bone and they'll give it for free or it'll be cheap. Yeah. You know, I had no idea they would do what they actually ended up doing. But props to them for literally making some of the best content I've ever seen in a video. That was like real raw

emotional and then to put me in solitary because they knew about my history with solitary. We've talked about it. That was just like that was brutal on me. To be back in that room, which is smaller than real solitary. And it just brought back a flood of memory. So I think that really messed me up internally. And then you mix that with not seeing the family, the solitary. And then those days of literally having nothing new to do because I think I didn't want the

visit because I just wanted something new to do. You know, we had commissary, we had books. I wanted something new to be introduced. And I knew, like, a visit wouldn't necessarily introduce something new. Gotcha. So that was going through my mind, too. So I got into a dark spot because we went through nothing new to do. And then turning down the TV, we went from day, you know, 40, we had new stuff introduced.

Day 50 was the visit. Day 60 was the TV. So from day 40 to day 80, we had nothing new to do because day 70, we didn't have a check-in. Right. Because Jimmy was out gallivanting the world going out dates with this. What is Fiance? Yeah. We're hanging out with Gordon Ramsey.

So we were sitting there eating prison food. Exactly. So I think that's what really hurt me the most internally because I'm someone that likes to do exciting things, do new things. That's why I read a book a day. And I was just like I was trying to get into trouble and swuggle the books and whatnot, you know. So I just need something new. I can't do the same thing every day.

Right. So I think that's what really, really destroyed me internally. And then when we had the Rock Challenge and I got to see my family, and I think they saw that too because that's why they probably gave you the phone call. Well, you were super, you were super adamant. Like, that's one thing about you also. It's just like, I tell my wife this. I'm like, yo, this dude, Ian, if he wants something, like, he's just going to bang his head

up on the wall over. And he doesn't care how much he gets rejected. He doesn't care how foolish he looks. Once he's locked in, like, literally based off, like, that's the name of your podcast. Like, that's you. like you are a freaking missile that gets locked in from uh i don't know what the navy flies but as soon as you're locked in on that thing like you're just going to keep talking about it you're going to keep focusing on it and honestly if it was anybody else they wouldn't have gotten that phone

call yeah i mean even that day on day 80 when i got the phone call i think i said to you and i said it i was like i'm not going to ask this dude for a phone call because i look stupid at this point like i've been asking for 30 days. Yeah. I've been crying about every time we saw him, I'm crying and bitching about, you know, the phone call. So I'm like, it's kind of beating a dead horse, you know, are they even going to put this in? And then, you know, one of the guards was like, just ask him again.

And it paid off. Yeah. And we piggybacked off each other. You're like, yo, it's his birthday, you know, in like a week and this and that. So that really helped too. Yeah. And on the topic of like not giving up, like, we get to the rock challenge. and I'm super negative about this rock

because I was I was I just cared about the phone call I got the phone call day 80 you made the decision on the rock and after that first hour I'm like we're done we just lost 50 grand that we put up for this rock but there's so there's that side to me but it's also like I'm going to give it my all the whole time I wasn't ever going to be there one day sitting in the corner hanging out you know and I got beat up bad I had giant blister on my thumb the first day

we went out there raining that other day but I knew no matter what no matter how much time I complained, I was still going to show up 100% and do it. That was another thing. And I just want to go back and talk about, these cats listen to everything. They listen to everything, bro. And they use it either for their advantage or ours.

But regarding the rock, yeah, you were super negative about it, but that's one thing that I respect about you also, is even though you were negative, about it. And there was a point where I was starting to get negative about it too. You were like, yo, if Lenny is feeling down about this, then I know something that's wrong. Did I know that this is tough? But you still went out there every day. It gave it your all. Most other people, even myself, when I feel like down or negative or not confident about something, I might not give it my own sometime, but you still grind it. And you still grind it.

and hammered it out. And we would come in after each day and we would kind of come up with a game plan or try to come up with a little slither of hope so that the next day would look like some type of progress. And I think that was the biggest bond building activity that we did, aside from some other stuff. But just pushing through that really did it.

And it gave us faith. You know, I think it's, It really gave us the, like, just seeing a slither of a crack and talking to each other about it and using each other's energy. And me praying about it, I think it was just a great concoction to build a good relationship. Yeah, I mean, we literally had blood, sweat, and tears into this. Literally. You were getting cut. I was getting cut.

The first day a chunk hit me in the chest. The blisters and, you know, that really brought us together. You know, I think that is such a defining moment in that where you have the cop and the criminal working together. Because this was also our first challenge where we did get to work together for the common goal. And we just knew how much was riding on this. You say tears. And like you said, literally blood, sweat and tears in the morning when I would go back to church. My little area, we called that church.

That's why I would read the Bible and read the purpose-driven life 40 days. But anyway, that challenge was me getting a car for my wife. And when I felt like we weren't able to break it, like, I cried because I was like, this is something that we need, like my family needs. And I prayed, and I prayed, and that's when I wrote it down. And I said, God, I'm giving this to you. I even, I even had a budget written out. I had a budget for if we broke the rock.

It did a budget for if we didn't break the rock. And I started focusing more on the budget for if we didn't break the rock. And I was like, I can't keep doing this. That's how rough it was getting, bro. Yeah, it was funny. Each challenge, because we started with the budget, like in our kernel. And each challenge, we started with the budget, like, in our kernel. And each challenge,

We would adjust our budget based on how we spent and stuff, how much money we spent. And we would just always like, okay, if we leave here with this amount, that helped us get us through, though. It did. Get us through the time, just analyzing thinking. But in a Mr. Beast video, you really don't know what you're going to leave with until you actually leave. That's right. Because anything could have happened. Now, how is your opinion of the criminal justice system changed by doing this video?

I mean, you were a former cop going into this. You spent your whole career as a police officer. you've never got to see this side of the criminal justice system or even spend 100 days with someone that was impacted by it on the other side. So how did that change your mindset? What do you think about it? Yeah, my mindset now, and I mentioned this in the video a few times

or while we were at the challenge, my mindset is I would love to see more prevention of people going to prison. I would like to see more proactivity to keep people out of prison. And the reason why is because I don't think, as a matter of fact, it's not even a matter of thinking. I just know that us as human beings

are not made to be locked up in a cage and to be isolated and to be controlled in that manner. Like it just does something to you mentally, even now, It's been a hundred days that we were in there. Even now, I'm still trying to adjust, bro. You talked about the sleep schedule.

I still can't get it down. Some days I'm waking up at six, some days I'm waking up at nine, some days I'm waking up at 10. Some days I'm going to sleep at two. It's all over the place. Being lonely, my family is on vacation right now, and I'm trying to keep myself around as many people as possible because I kind of have PTSD from being.

in the prison even though you were there with me you know there were times where like we can't talk we couldn't talk to each other all the time you know what I'm saying like we had our own we're our own human being so um there'll be times where I did feel like I was in there alone and I don't like that feeling it's not something I ever want to experience again so I would like to try to do my best, and I don't know how yet to try to prevent young men and women from going to prison. I think that the criminal justice system needs to have more people exposed to that element. I think more people, especially if they're going down the wrong road, I think that, and I'm not talking about scared straight tactics. I'm talking about building a prison, a mock prison, being.

in control by cards telling them when they can eat, when they could shower, when they could do whatever the case may be, just to understand, like, that element of control is not one that somebody should have taken over their life. So I think that the criminal justice system needs to focus more. Kayak gets my flight, hotel, and rental car right, so I can tune out travel advice that's just plain wrong. Way better than points. Never fly during a Scorpio full moon.

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Being proactive, that's my personal opinion. When you got out from doing the video, did you look up other prison movies, interviews, or anything like that to compare your experience? Yeah, yours. I looked up. I looked up your story. I listened to a few of your interviews that you have on your podcast. I tried to find shot caller, but I couldn't download.

I had to download some other app or something like that. But honestly, I still suffered from like PTSD from being in there. You would say all the time, like, this prison is worse than any prison that I've ever been in. And I just didn't want to see anything, bro. I was just like, yo, I don't really want to look back like that. I would hear some of the stories from yours, and it was more like just kind of understanding your style and how you draw out stories and, you know,

studying your platform. But kind of wanting to hear what you talked about confirmed by others, right? But I really don't want to watch anything because I've had my own experience in it. Like, not that it's the real deal, and I don't want to get to the point where I have to worry about, you know, violence or anything like that.

But it really, honestly, it depresses me to see what people go through in there. Like the little bit that I have seen and a little bit that I have heard afterwards. Like I told you while in there, Oz, watching that as a kid, as a teenager, after coming home from Jones Beach and working there, that's what kept me out of prison. I was shook. My man at a BC had me scared. I don't know if you watched it yet.

I haven't at the time I want. Anybody that knows about Oz at the BC. See, that dude had me shook. But then even afterwards, I was just like, yeah, man, on top of having that separation from my family and being fed things that I don't want to be fed. And then not even having the violence, I can't even imagine what that feels like. So I just haven't dive in that much because I think I've got enough of a taste. Yeah, throughout the whole video, I always said that this was the worst prison I've ever

Ben and and I've been in a few prisons and I think I always compared it to, there's just a lack of stuff to do, like the rec yard we only got for an hour a day, whereas in real prison we would have more outside time, the library an hour a day, we would be able to access to library full time in prison, not having phones or access to commissary, all of those things that seem so simple make it so much more challenging. And in my prison experience, I mean, we had contraband phones, we had everything, you know. And I'm not saying that he should have made it like that, but I just wish there would have been more freedom,

but granted it's a challenge for money. Sure. I get that aspect, but that's what I had something to compare it to, whereas if I don't think it would have been as hard for me if I didn't have it something to compare it to. Yeah. But I guess that's like anything in life, you know?

Right, right. Yeah. You just don't know until you have that comparison. Yeah, they always say, when you used to compare a lot, I used to say to myself, I used to always take it as saying, in comparison is the deeper joy.

You know, and I think the fact that I didn't have anything to compare it to, and for me it was like, oh, I asked God for a new experience and I just got to take it all in, you know? He's going to put me where I need to be, even though I might not like it, but it's still going to pay off in the end of things. And earlier, we were talking about timing, and obviously I used to talk to you a lot about God

and spirituality and stuff like that. And a couple weeks ago, you sent me an interview from a gentleman that... Pastor Mark, yeah. Pastor Mark. Yeah. That was a powerful interview. And what I...

My wife and I, while we were in Delaware, we were listening to it. And I was like, I wonder what's going through Ian's head as he's talking to this pastor because everything that he mentioned I talked to you about. Like the lust,

the generational curses, and stuff like that. And, you know, the women and things of that, that sort. And he mentioned that he was supposed to interview you, but something had, or excuse me, you were supposed to interview him, but it got delayed for some reason because of weather. No, I went to do the Mr. Beast video.

Oh, okay. I thought that he was supposed to, okay, so it's because of the video. Yeah, he was originally scheduled for a couple, months ago and I had to push all my interviews back. I had like, I think 50 people scheduled in those three months. Okay, okay. Got you. Got you. But I was thinking to myself, what are the chances that I was able to speak to you about so many of these things that he bought up? And now he's kind of hammering those things home, right? Like the timing of it, do you feel like, I mean, I feel like I'm interviewing

you now. Do you feel like, um, God says, that up for a reason so that you could kind of be a little bit more prepped and receptive to what it is that he had to say. Yeah, I mean, I think that for sure, but also having someone that comes on my show like that, which was him and me already having a mindset of being open about it and then being able to talk to him about it and feel comfortable with that person and that person having the time to talk to me. Like I've been talking to him weekly now. Just about life. Like I've been looking for like a spiritual mentor or like a therapist type person. And I feel comfortable with him. So I use him as as that tool for it. And I think that it's important for me to have that. And I told him,

I'm like, listen, I can't talk about like, I can't get super religious every week or I can't, you know, really dive into certain things every week. That's not for me. But I do want to explore just the concept of being spiritual and why things work for a certain reason and how it's driven by God and these different avenues. And we just have a conversation. So it's like I told him he's my spiritual mentor. But you definitely set the groundwork for that for me to be open about it. Because you made me think of a lot of things, stuff that I had learned a lot in prison, because I told you I looked at the Bible and I definitely got super spiritual in prison. But then I didn't touch it for seven years.

So you kind of brought that all back to me and kind of ground me on that. And then now all of these things are happening in my life, you know, between the girl and, you know, Pastor Mark and just everything, all the opportunity that's still to come. It's amazing how that all pieces together. And a lot of the concepts that you were talking to me about came true, like spending time with family and not dating around and just being grounded and making time for the things that are important to you. I've been able to apply to my life since getting back. And I just, I say no a lot more now. And I just, I'm just focused, like, I have a good life now. I set the groundwork to just be in a good spot.

And that's kind of where I'm at now. And I'm glad I got to do life with my best friend, Matt, who, you know, we gave him the name. Maddie Ice. You gave him the name Maddie Ice. And it's so funny because we were talking about Maddie Ice every day in the video. Yeah. And the guards went up to him on day 50 when he came to visit. And he were like, are you Maddie Ice?

He's like, who's Maddie Ice? But now every day I talk about Maddie Ice on social media, I change his contact in my phone. And you're the one that... Yeah, it's Maddie Ice. You gave him that name. But it's so cool to be able to bring someone along that journey. I think a lot of content creators see that.

I mean, look at Jimmy, Mr. Beast. He has his best friends along with him. The biggest creators in the world have their best friends along with him. And, you know, I just like the first night before I left for Beast, he stayed up all night with me grinding. And I literally handed him my life. I handed him my phone, passwords, bank accounts, literally everything. Trusted this man with my life.

And I saw him grinding for me that night. And when I got out, just how he was able to grow my following even more, he posted the clips. He took it seriously. I was like, that man's got a lot of love for me and a ton of loyalty. And he did what no one's ever done for me before. So, you know, now he's rocking with me full time. And he's got my back and I got his back. And we're just going to continue to grow.

And we live together. You know, he's my roommate, and he works with me here at the studio and runs my social media now. And the timing of it's perfect, too, because I told the girl, I was like, you know, three months ago, four months ago, I would always be on my phone. I had to make posts. I had to do all these things. I couldn't necessarily be present all the time. Now Matt runs all those things, and I'm able to be more present and focus on, you know, in one of the books we read and the Warren Buffett quote is, you know, figure out what's in your level of competence and everything else doesn't matter. wrote down my journal, like, I just need to focus on the interviews, the editing, and making the

clips. Yeah. I don't need to focus on posting the clips or scheduling or anything else. So right now, my schedule is, you know, I go to the gym every day and I show up for the interviews. I put it together, edit it, get those pieces together because that's what I'm good at. And everything else runs itself now. I've subdivided. I put that out there for others to do. And it's good. I mean, I don't necessarily, I probably work like 30, 40 hours a week. And I have time for the people in my life. Like I'm playing, do you see on my Snapchat? I play chess with pops because you and I played chess every day. I play chess with pops. We, you know, we're hanging out and spend family time. I mean, I don't remember the last time I hung out with my parents on a Friday

night and I was over there for dinner the last two Friday nights. You know, I met this great girl that I have time to enjoy life with and, you know, things are coming together in that sense. That's great, man. I've always said to you, and I say to everybody else too, is, faith, love, health, and wealth. And if you try to pursue all four of those in some capacity for me, I feel like faith is the priority and everything else falls into place.

But it seems like that's what's happening with you. I mean, you're talking to Pastor Mark, got yourself a nice lady, got Maddie Ice as a great friend, and you're connecting with your parents. I see you still working out. out, you know, that, that to me was another great part about the video, just us trying to figure out how to improve physically also, you know?

And I felt like I had, even though we do a lot of our own workouts, like seeing your progress motivated me every day, seeing you walking around for five hours like a freaking maniac, I was like, all right, I'm not doing that, but I'm doing something today. And you lost an incredible amount of weight. Yeah. What was the final thing, like 20 pounds? So, yeah, I went in at 185 and I left at 168. And what are you at today?

Today, you know, all that food that we talked about, I kind of spurged on. So I'm at 176 now. I mean, you still look the same from when you left. You probably put on to more muscle. Yeah, more protein. Yeah. I mean, our meals were our meals like we were eating. We weren't snacking.

I think that's the biggest thing. I'm still sticking with the no snacking thing now, too. I don't snack, and I've been eating pretty clean. But, dude, I ate some great food when I got out. You know what's crazy? For the first time, like, once I got out, I went to a good friend of mine, his restaurant in the Bronx, best Chinese food. but after that I've just been on the quest for something really good

that's going to just be like an explosion and it's just been one thing I've only had a the only thing that's made me satisfied since being out of prison aside from my friend's food is I had an oxtail empanata that sounds good bro it was amazing

and it was only one that's all I needed if my wife had bought more of them then I'll probably be at like 190 again. But it was great. It was great. We would talk about food all the time. Oh, and then I put up the pictures of the food. Yeah.

It was hard, man. I mean, in real prison, you're eating better than the way we ate, you know? But we, I think that was one of the biggest things we bonded over to, just the food. And I always tell the story to everyone that asked me about my experience on the video. Because they ask about the food, I say, listen, that's Sunday night, we had a great meal, sausage and pepper. you know, the first Sunday we're there. Monday comes, breakfast is good, you know, eggs, the corned beef and hash, lunches, the crab cakes. We're excited, man, you know?

You're asking me, so what's prison food like? And we're having these meals, they were given us seconds. Monday night comes around. This is our second dinner. It's sausage and peppers again. So we gave them the benefit of the doubt. We're like, okay, leftovers, that's it. But then we found out every single day is the same three meals.

meals over and over and over again. Yes. But we held strong. We didn't buy the kitchen on day 20. We didn't buy the kitchen. But I'm going to tell you guys this. When it comes down to mental breakdowns and one of my forms of PTSD, it would be having those meals over and over again.

But at the same time, it helped with losing weight. The portions were great. Like the chef that was preparing them, they made sure that they kept them. to the, they kept the portions to the point where it would fill us up, but it wasn't in excess, even though we did have the opportunity to have seconds at some point or another. But I also think eating the same thing every day, maybe not want to eat at times,

and that helped with the weight loss too. Yeah. So I think I have to kind of get better at my portions again. Like I kind of went going a little crazy with the portions at times, but then I'm like on and off with it, but I still go to the gym. You know, I still do my push-ups and stuff like that, more cardio. But, yeah, that just working out and seeing our progress and that being another thing.

Like, I think that helped with the challenge substantially as well. You know, it wasn't just about the money we were going to be making on the day 10. But every time Nurse Brandy came and we had that scale, that was another form of success for us. And you... Transport your senses with Sol de Janeiro's limited edition perfume mist collection at Sephora. Sprits on lush notes of rainforest orchid and crisp sea breeze with Hefresco Paraiso. Embrace a floral and fruity scent inspired by Rio's nude beach with cheeky bikini. Or caps your sun-kissed bliss with limonada gelada, where zesty Brazilian lemonade accord meets coconut milk and golden brown sugar.

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You trimmed up once you got the skull field. Like you had the whole look, bro. and you maintained it as well. Thanks, Lenny. Yeah, bro. What was the biggest, like, irritation that you had with me? Like, what was one thing I did that just irritated you? I know you talked about, like, we talked earlier about, like, just, like, the mentality

about the visits and everything like that and shutting down. But what was just like, people call it an ick in dating? Like, what was, like, that one thing? Living with someone for 100 days that just annoyed you about me? And we'll do the same to ask that question when we do your interview, too. Okay. And for anyone listening, Lenny's going to have an episode with this same conversation,

but in my eyes and him asking me the questions and we'll have that linked in this description too for him. But yeah, what was your ick for me? What was your irritation? The word dogged. The word dogged. I don't know if they're going to edit it out when it comes out to the video when it comes out.

But once he was not able to see his family, I don't know where a dog come from. I don't know if I might have used it at one point or another. But he would say this word over and over again. Yeah, that was it. Talk about getting dog complaining. Oh, yeah. And then just complaining about stuff, you know.

And I just, I realized that you were just unhappy. Like you were just fed up. You wanted to go home. You wanted to see your family. you wanted to talk to Maddie Ice and know what your business was looking like and I got it. So even though I would get annoyed, like I think me having three kids help me. Remember you counted how many days I said dogged? How many times?

Yeah. It was like a hundred something in one day. It was something crazy. I think that the first day, it was like the most of the day was over already. And I think that you had hit like 83 times. And there was only like four hours left before lights went out. I just kept saying we got dogged. I remember the first time saying it, like, after that, because we didn't use it at all.

And then day 50 happened, I was like, bro, we got dogged. Yeah, it was crazy. And every time Jimmy would come through at a tour or something, they were like, bro, stop dog at us. And then I would say, once we got the books, I feel like that's when you really went off into, like, your own world. So I would see you and I'll be bored and I'll be ready to say something to you. and then this is when you had to hut under the bed. I thought it was so slick. Yeah.

And then I'll be ready to say something to you and then you'll just grab a book and then you just slide under the bed. Or you would literally go from, like I'll be sitting there, I'll be ready to talk or whatever the case may be. And you would go from talking, bro. Like this I felt to be like psychotic.

But you would go from talking to grabbing the, the book and just locking in. Like there was, there was no, like, there was no progression. There was no transition. You would just grab the book and lay down and you just be like this and nothing else.

And I was like, yo, how does he do that? Like, how is that possible? I would say sometimes you're, like, I think I might have been a little envious at how much you were able to just focus on reading. and I was like this dude when he locks in or something like he does it for real for real so I found it a bit annoying when it came down to the books because I would be bored I'd be like yo I want to communicate I want to talk um but you that like that's that was your piece like

that's how you got through it and I had to respect that because it was a team effort yeah once we had the books I don't know how I got through those first 30 days without them Yeah, because you just, you just were in, bro, you were reading a book a day. Like this, that's no cap at all. This dude was reading a book a day. I don't know how you did it. I did about 60 books. You did.

Yeah, I thought it was 50, but I, you say it's 60, it doesn't, it doesn't. Yeah, we lost some on like challenge days when time sped up and stuff. I was so pissed that when we got thrown in solitary on day 99, because I had like 15 or 20 pages of a girl with a dragon tattoo. I never finished it, but I watched them. movie and the movie was underwhelming compared to the book. But that's what I was, I remember when we were waiting for Jimmy on day 99, I'm just sitting in the back trying to get through this book, skim through it, you know, go at it. And, you know, now that brings us to day 99, you kept telling me for the last week leading up to it, bro, it's going to be solitary. And we never had a chance

to talk about this because I feel like we got jipped out of our last day together. We were going to play basketball. We were going to do all of these things. And you were like, it's going to be solitary. I'm like, no, bro. They already did solitary. day 50 we're good you like I'm telling you and I'm sitting in solitaire I'm like he was right how what so yeah we never got to talk about that yeah we were in solitary and I guess my question for you is did you think I was gonna take the money and leave and screw you over was there ever a point that you thought that during that last 24 hours together there was the only thing for me was you were so ad bit about not wanting to be there

and how hard it was, you denied it so much, the fact that it was a possibility that we would have it. And then day 50, and you were just talking about, I'm not going back in there and da-da-da-da-da. I said you couldn't pay me a million bucks to go back in there. You did say that. Yeah, because you were like, what if it's like 10 grand a day, so I'm not doing it.

You did say that, bro. So off the strength of that, I was concerned. Not off of your loyalty or wanting to take the money, but off of the strength of, bro, you may have PTSD, you know what I'm saying? Like, you actually were in solitary for real, for real life, and now you got to do this for a night. But that was just a small amount. I would say, like, it was like 25% out of 100%.

I just knew that I knew your story. I knew that you knew my story. and most of all your brand if people saw that you ripped me off and that you couldn't get through that it was just the super suss on your part Yeah, as soon as they shut that door

I knew I wasn't going to do it Like they kept coming to me Thinking I'm going to take it Because they knew like they Like we said they listen to everything I think if they thought If anyone was going to take it It was going to be me

And they wanted all that captured But I think what helped me was One I knew I wasn't going to screw you over Like at that point But two, just making content vlogging, like that passed, like those first like four hours, like I gave them so much content. Oh yeah? Like different variations, everything that kept me busy. I didn't sleep at all that night.

I was up all night. I could not sleep. One, because I hate those wool blankets. And we had, we're back to the cheesy pillow. I tried to sleep. I couldn't. I was up 48 hours between that day and then the next day because we all went out to the bar to celebrate on day 100. And I got back to the hotel ready to pass out. I was drunk after not drinking for 100 days. And I was like, I can't sleep. I just got to working. I sobered up, got to work. It stayed all up. Stayed up all night and just started working and going on my computer, doing accounting, doing everything like that. But yeah, I knew going into that, I was like, I just have to tough it out. And I felt comfortable like they had an AC in there. We didn't have a book or anything, which sucked. But I was actually

able to reflect on everything. Like, I think what made this difference than day 50, because day 50, I was only in there for three or four hours and it was miserable. But what made this different is like I'm going home when this is over. Like I'm done. It's not like I got to do this and then survive X amount of days again. But something that I have to tell you about is, bro, I got sick that night. Again, remember how I got sick that week before? Yeah, so we ate the pasta.

That was our last conversation, our last dinner or whatever there. And I just got the runs, bro. Again? Yeah. I put up the tent. Everything. It was like, dude, it was like midnight and it was dark because they shut the lights off. So I'm in there pooping.

diarrhea at midnight, bro. Oh, my goodness. And then that and then the crickets. Bro, the crickets, there was like 10 or 15 crickets. I kept popping out under the door. I'm flushing water with the water bottles on them. They were everywhere. I couldn't sleep.

There was so much noise. Wow. And then when I finally tried to sleep, I just couldn't because I was so excited. I'm like, I'm going home. Yeah. So luckily, those 24 hours really passed by. If there was ever a time during that challenge for time to speed up, That was it, and it did it.

It didn't feel slow at all. It just, it went by, and I'm, you know, I'm glad I stuck it out and did that. But I wasn't going to, there wasn't any shot unless, like, Mr. Beas came to me and said, hey, can you do it and we'll still give him the money just for the content, which we all know he wouldn't have done anyways because he doesn't fake anything. That would have been the only way. And obviously a part of me was like, well, what if I leave for the content? It would be funny.

And I just pay him his half of the money. But they weren't going to spit it like that anyways. that I couldn't have that for my brand. So I'm glad I stayed and it was so good to get out of there. But I knew you weren't. There was not one part of me thought that you would do that. Because you go 99 days with someone. I mean, you look at all of his videos.

We knew a challenge like this was coming. We didn't know it would be solitary, but we knew there would be some type of offer. I can't imagine anyone in this world spending 99 days with someone and screwing them over like that. I just can't see it. How do you do that? How do you leave?

I know Jimmy wouldn't have made you face each other because they told us if you hit it Jimmy will come, you sneak out, and then that's it. You know, you never see the person again. Right. How could you do? You've got to have no heart. There's a lot of grimy people out there, bro.

Yeah. That last night, what got me through is I actually put a, I put a sheet over the timer because I did not want to keep looking at it and counting down. so I had something that blacked it out completely. So I couldn't look at it.

I studied that clock all the time. And it was so bright, it was so bright when we were sleeping. I was like, I can't look at it. It's going to make time slow. But every time I looked, it was like, another hour down, another hour. Really? And in my mind, what helped me get from hour 24 to hour, like,

I think it was like 16 or 15, because we went in at like 12 o'clock or 1 o'clock. I'm like, okay, I could get to bed. 9 o'clock was my plan. Dinner was at 8. 9 o'clock, bam, sleep 10 hours. Because I'd been sleeping longer the last week or so.

Yeah. I couldn't sleep. So I was like, damn. That sucks, dude. That sucked. I was up all night, but it all worked out in the end. Yeah. I actually slept, bro.

I actually slept. I had one cricket. You know me. I was stomping all the freaking insects out. There was one cricket that I couldn't find and stomp out. But, yeah, I slept pretty well. I slept decent, I would say. And me covering up that timer helped me substantially.

but I did a lot of praying and I worked out while I was in there. I also read my journal. So that was my book that helped me get through. And yeah, I think the fact that I knew that I was getting out that helped me substantially too. Once I woke up, the time just went like that. It just zoomed right by. Yeah, the morning's about. Yeah.

Yeah, it sped up. And I actually prayed about that. I was like, God, if there's, I have a time that I need something to speed up like I need it to be now. And it just went by so quick, bro. Yeah. Super quick. Lenny, I'm glad we got to sit down and do this today.

For anyone, you know, that hasn't watched a Mr. Beast video yet, go watch it. Because then our whole conversation today will make sense about it. We'll have the link in the description of this. But I imagine anyone that clicks on this is going to watch the Mr. Beast video. And it's so cool that we got to sit down and, you know, be friends. and I always wondered how the contestants are afterwards. And I've seen some of the other contestants, like I looked up Susie and followed her on Instagram,

and she followed me back. And I see she makes content with some of the other contestants and whatnot, and they're still friendly with each other. Yeah. So it'll be cool to see, like, the evolution of this. And if we're in other videos and what happens, you know, down the line. But I'm glad we got to do this. Now we're going to go film an episode for your podcast,

Purpose Over Pension, which you guys should check out. And yeah, you know, it's great, man. Listen, bro, thank you for having me. I know this is just the beginning of our friendship, man. And you just provided me with so much value over the 100 days of being in there and even being here today. I'm super excited, super happy. And, you know, just to sit across from you again and be in your presence.

I know you don't like waking up to me. But to be across from you and actually be in our element, it's awesome. So, you know, thank you. for everything that you do and God is going to continue to bless you, bro. Thanks, man. It's nice not seeing you in orange or a wife beater, you know? Yes, sir. All right, man, let's go do yours.

Let's do it.