REAL AF with Andy Frisella - 547. Q&AF Ft. Damon West: Fear Of Confrontation, Power Through Difficult Challenges & Business Highs And Lows

Episode Date: July 17, 2023

In today's episode, Andy & DJ are joined in the studio by keynote speaker and best-selling author Damon West. They answer your questions on how to deal with the fear of confrontation, the best way to mentally power through difficult challenges in life, and how to deal with money fluctuating while running your business. 

What is up guys, it's Andy Purcell and this is the show for the realest sake of body lies, the fakeness and delusions of modern society. Welcome to Motherfucking Reality, guys. Today we have Q and AF. They're a very special Q and AF today. We've got one of my really good buddies sitting down with us, going to join in the conversation. I'll intro him in just a second. If this is your first time listening, this is where you get to submit questions and we give you the answers, okay? You could submit your questions a couple different ways, and these questions can be about anything. It can be about personal development, entrepreneurship, what's going on in the world or anything else. First way you could submit your questions is guys, you can email those questions into askandy at andyfussella.com. The second way is if you go on YouTube after eight years of audio

exclusivity, we did start posting on YouTube. So if you're on the audio platforms and you haven't checked us out on YouTube, go do that. Click subscribe and go down in the comments on the Q and AF episode and drop your question right in there. And then we'll pick some from there to answer as well. Now, if you're new to the show, we have shows within the show. This is Q and AF. Like I just said, other times we have CTI. CTI is cruise the internet. That's where we talk about what's going on in the world. We throw some headlines up on the screen over here, talk about what they're lying about, what we think they're telling the truth about. It's a lot of speculation, but we try to draw our own conclusions and then talk about how we, the people, can be the solution to these problems going on in the world.

Other times we have real talk. Real talk is just five to 20 minutes of me just giving you some real talk. That is the stuff that I think needs to be said and heard. And then we have 75 hard versus. And 75 hard versus is where someone who has completed 75 hard, which is the first portion of the Live Hard program, comes on and tells us how it changed their life, what they learned from it, how they grew from it, and what it's done for them, and what it can do from you for you as well if you're interested in this live hard program which is 75 hard as well um you know a lot of people don't understand that live hard is a program that is a comprehensive year program that's meant to be repeated over and over and over again every

single year 75 heart is the boot camp the initial 75 days of that program it's the part that went viral but i always got to talk about it because it's part of a bigger program called live hard 75 hard is the bootcamp, the initial 75 days of that program. It's the part that went viral, but I always got to talk about it because it's part of a bigger program called live hard. If you want to know about the live hard program, it's episode two Oh eight. It is free. There's no purchase required. You'll get everything you need to know for free at episode two Oh eight. So, uh, and then we have this thing called the fee. The fee is very simple. If we bring a good value, please share the show. I don't do much social media. The reason I don't do much social media is generally because I get shut down immediately for what I have to say, right?

So the algorithm is against us. They don't like me on social. You guys know that. And I ask you guys to share the show because without that, the information doesn't get out. So if you want to follow me on Instagram, you can follow me. I do some stories sometimes, but for the most most part i don't really do social media so it all the messaging and everything that we've got on this show if you want it to get out if you think it's important if you think it's someone

or something that people need to hear you got to share it so we have this thing called the fee and that's what we mean we say pay the fee or don't be a hoe share the show all right no ho zone over here no ho zone that's right hashtag no ho zone over here. No ho zone, baby. That's right. Hashtag no ho zone. What's going on? Oh, nothing much, man. We got our special buddy here. Yeah, we do. Mr. Damon West.

What's going on, guys? What's up, brother? Man, not a whole lot. Thanks for having me on, Andy. I really appreciate that. No, it's great to see you, dude. Damon kind of runs through St. Louis. He's traveling all over the world. He's one of the best speakers in the world.

And he's got an amazing story that he shares and he helps a lot of people. And he happens to be here today. So we just say, hey, let's do a show best speakers in the world. And he's got an amazing story that he shares and he helps a lot of people. And he happens to be here today. So we just say, hey, let's do a show. Yeah, I know. I was born a way that it happened like this. And Emily told me there's like, come on in. Let me tell you something about your wife, about Emily Frisella, man.

Emily has the best grammar of anybody I've ever met on the planet. I'm talking about, I'm serious, DJ. Her grammar is impeccable. Like she sends text messages and they're like, well, that's why, DJ. Her grammar's impeccable. Like, she sends text messages, and they're like, all the punctuations there, man. Well, that's why I married her to make up for my grammar. Oh, my God. I'm an author. I got best-selling books, and I was like,

I don't even write that well. Like, how do you do that? Like, it's incredible, man. She has great grammar, though. But, yeah, when she told me, like, come on in, I was like, man, that's great. And, Andy, look, man, we've talked before about this, dude. You practice what you preach, man. Yeah, but so do you. Yeah, but you that's great. And Andy, look, man, we've talked before about this, dude. You practice what you preach, man.

Yeah, but so do you. Yeah, but you're the victim. Dude, we're going to talk today a little bit about my story. And the background has to do with crime. You're the victim of a violent crime. And you've got this guy that's this reformed criminal on your show today, man. So, I mean, that's. And it ain't me, guys.

Yeah. Put that out there. You definitely didn't pay your light bill, bitch. I saw your lights got shut off. Hey, look, bro.

I'm a believer in redemption. You know what I'm saying? Like, dude, everybody listen like real talk. And this is just, this is just real. You know why?

You know what I understand about people who have done things and then done their time and got released? People are hypocritical. Okay. Like the average citizen that's out there has done fucking thousand things that they could have went to jail for. They just never got caught. All right. And then these people do things like, you know, like what happened, what you did. And we make mistakes and things happen and that you want

to be around people that have done things in life because they're the ones that have value to offer you. If someone lives a perfectly straight line, what kind of value do they really have? What perspective do they really have? Right. Right. So it takes, it takes someone who's made multiple mistakes to say, Hey, don't, don't make that mistake. You know what I mean? So like, I just a big believer in redemption, dude. I think that, I think that, you know, when people do wrong and they, and they make it right, or they do their best and they live a different way. I think that's how the world's supposed to be.

Well, dude. And that's the thing. I want to applaud you on that, man. Thanks for having me. I mean, you, you live by what you, you talk about. And me being here today and his example. So way man because my backstory man it's there you know i've i mean i tell people a little bit about what you do yeah and how you how you got here so damon is damon is an author he's a seven figure uh uh public speaker he speaks all over the planet he's very fucking good if you guys haven't had a chance to hear him speak, it's amazing. He's an entrepreneur, but it wasn't always that way. No, no, no. So let's get into the beginning of that and kind of give the listeners a reference about your history. Yeah. So we're in July of 2023 recording

this episode. We'll go back to July of 2008, man, 15 years ago, man. I'm sitting on this little ratty old couch in Dallas, this little rundown apartment. And on this couch next to me is my meth dealer, man. And I'm a full-blown meth addict at this point. This guy's name is Tex, my dope dealer. And I'm telling Tex, man. Tex in Texas. Tex in Texas. Yeah, man. He's a dope dealer in Texas. How many Tex's are there in Texas? There's a lot. And there happens to be a lot in prison. I found that out. But I'm telling Tex that day, man, Tex, you don't want to be here, man. The cops are closing in on me, man.

The end is near. And, man, just about that time, the flashbang grenade breaks the window. It's tumbling across the living room. It's smoking. I can see it, man. And I try to get out of the living room as fast as I can, but it was too late. Boom. This thing blows up in my face, man.

Bright white light, loud noise. Cops are swarming in. And when I could see and hear again, this cop's got this barrel of an assault rifle digging into my eye socket, his fingers on the trigger, and he's screaming, don't move, don't move. And I'm like, man, don't worry, don't worry. And one of the cops screamed out, we got him. We got the Uptown Burglar. And that was my name. That's what they called me, the Uptown Burglar. The Uptown Burglar Crime Spree was about a dozen other meth what they called me, the Uptown Burglary. The Uptown Burglary Crime Spree was about a dozen other meth addicts and myself, young and old, male and female,

black and white, and everything in between, because drugs and addiction don't discriminate, man. That gets anybody, right? But we indiscriminately, without reservation, broke into the homes of dozens and dozens of people in the Uptown neighborhood of Dallas and beyond to feed our insatiable meth habits. And when I broke into people's houses, Andy, I didn't just steal property from my victims. I stole something way more valuable from these people. I stole their sense of security. And I don't know if they can ever get that back. No one was ever home during these crimes.

It's very much a violated feeling. I had to deal with this. You had that? I've had to deal with it. You had to deal with it? Yeah, I had to do break in my house for political reasons. Man, it's something I think about. Today in this life, I've got a wife.

I've got a stepdaughter. I can't imagine somebody doing that in my home. What I did to other people. So I was a bad guy. Didn't physically hurt anybody. No one was ever home. Never saw my victims. They never saw me.

We didn't use any weapons. But a dozen of us. And I was the ringleader of the whole thing. I was the mastermind of the crime spree. They take me to Dallas County jail. They put me in jail. They set my bond at $1.4 million. This is higher than any murderer or rapist or any violent criminal in jail at the time. 10 months later, I go to this trial. And then the trial, man, the evidence of my guilt is overwhelming. Everybody's there to testify against me that I to this trial. The trial, the evidence of my guilt is overwhelming. Everybody's there to testify against me that I committed crimes with. They put on 58 witnesses in six days. It was just exhausting. The evidence was so overwhelming. The jury goes to deliberate for 10 minutes on my punishment. Yeah, man, I don't know how much law and order you all watch,

but if a jury's gone for 10 minutes, it it means they smoked you man yeah oh man i came back in the courtroom i got two paid attorneys i i thought i was gonna get probation i've never had a felony conviction white middle class guy you know i'm a division one college quarterback you know my job my job history man i worked in congress i worked on wall street you know but man that judge read the sentence out loud 65 years years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Andy, DJ, that's a life sentence in Texas. They stopped calculating. Dude, what was that like?

It was like being kicked in the stomach, Andy. What was that like? That had to be, I can only imagine that has to be like probably the worst feeling ever. Oh my God. And one of the first things that went through my head was like my mom and my dad were there in the front row, man, my mom and my dad. And then I was like, oh man, they just heard heard that you know and and i'm thinking myself man i broke these people and um and as soon as the judge reads the sentence out loud the sheriff is on me the bailiff's on me they're handcuffed they took you right there they're getting me out of there

man that's i mean you got a lifer on your hands this guy could run or anything but i mean i didn't i was just stunned still and i i lock eyes my mom on the way out i'm like i'm screaming across court my mom i'm sorry i'm. They whisked me out of there. They put me in this little side room. It's got a bulletproof glass. They told me to wait. My mom and my dad get escorted in the other side of the glass. It's about a five-minute conversation.

They're going to let my parents have one last visit with me before I go to prison. They actually feel sorry for my parents. I just got life. My mom has this conversation with me on May 18, 2009. It's about five minutes. She's telling me, you can't go to prison and get one of these white hate groups. He's Aryan Brotherhood type gangs. You know, she's telling me no gangs, no tattoos. She said, you come back as the man we raise or don't come back to us at all. She's like, I mean, Damon, you owe us this debt. Now

you owe Texas that other debt. You owe us this debt. So he take me back to my cell. I got two months before the prison bus comes to pick me up, Andy. And I'm asking every guy in county jail, how am I going to survive? What am I going to do? And every guy I talked to, black, white, Asian, Hispanic, they all say the same thing. You got to get into a gang. They said, you won't survive where you're going without a gang. I'm going to the worst part of prison, Andy. It's where lifers go. It's a maximum security level five prison that I'm about to go into. Level five is the highest security level there is in Texas. But there was this one guy who was so different, man, this old black man named Mr. Jackson,

old Muslim guy named Mr. Jackson. He was a real positive guy. He always had a smile on his face. And every morning he'd come up and he'd talk to me and he'd try to pick me up because I was down in the dumps. And so one morning he comes up, he's got a cup of coffee in his hands, a smile on his face. He's like, West, I've been watching you.

I've been watching how you're dealing with the knuckleheads, these dummies. Talk about you got to get to a gang. He said, man, don't listen to these fools. But if you want to keep the promise you made to your mom and your dad, then I need to tell you what prison is going to be like. So he tells me, he said, the first thing you need to understand about prison, he said, prison is all about race. He said, race runs the entire institution because the inmates want it to be about race.

He said, that's how they keep people preoccupiedied they fight racial wars in there and you get stuck fighting that he said because it's about race when you walk in the door the white gangs get the first dibs on you so the Aryan Brotherhood the Aryan Circle the White Knights the Woods he starts naming all the white prison gangs he said you got to fight all of them if you want to be independent from them and he said if you don't give in to their ideology of hate out of fear then you're going to fight the black gangs and he said, if you don't give in to their ideology of hate out of fear, then you're going to fight the black gangs. And he said, the white gangs are going to send the black gangs after you, by the way.

And the black gangs, the Crips, the Bloods, Gangster Disciples, the Mandingo Warriors, they're going to be happy to tee off on this independent white guy that won't get... Is that the one you'd be in? The Mandingo Warriors? Yeah, for sure. I was just thinking, which one would I be in? I think I'd be in the Mandingo Warriors, too. Maybe. Yeah, I don don't know i don't think i would get in with the white gangs

i think you'd be an independent andy yeah i don't think i don't think you probably run all of them i don't know about that i listen to your stuff andy you'd be an independent like me man you're you're an independent but listen i'll tell you this you're fucking you listen they'll probably be the most profiting year of that fucking jail yeah we'll figure out how to make some money you'll figure out something it'll be like fucking shawshank redemption yeah that's a man but but he told me he said you're gonna fight the black gangs and the black gangs are gonna get a free shot at you man so they're gonna come after you but he told me he said if you survive all that and you can survive all that you'll earn the right to walk alone he told me the strongest man in prison always walks alone doesn't join a gang that's why i told you andy you're a strong dude you'd probably be independent you know He told me the strongest man in prison always walks alone, doesn't join a gang. That's why I told you, Andy, you're a strong dude. You'd probably be independent.

He told me the truth about fighting. And it's the truth I've shared with every audience I've ever spoken to. He said, you don't have to win all your fights, but you do have to fight all your fights. He said, some days you win, some days you're going to lose. He said, it doesn't matter. No one cares about your wins and losses. Just fight. Just defend yourself. But man, when he's telling me this, man, back in 2009, I'm looking back at this guy like a deer in headlights, man. All this violence and terror I'm about to walk into. And that's when he's like, Wes, let me break it down for you a different way. He said, I want you to imagine prison as a pot of boiling water. And he said, anything we put

into this pot of boiling water will be changed by the heat and the pressure inside this pot. He said, I'm going to put three things in this pot of boiling water and watch how they change. A carrot, an egg, and a a coffee bean so he walks me through it The carrot goes in really hard in a pot of boiling water, but becomes soft and mushy and weak You're going to encounter guys like that He said guys that go in there a little really tough and prison breaks them down The egg and the same pot of boiling water goes in with that hard outer shell that soft liquid inside But that soft liquid inside becomes hardened while they're in prison. Like your heart becomes hardened. They become the egg

and they're mean and mad and angry. He said, but a coffee bean in the same pot of boiling water changes the pot of boiling water into a pot of coffee. He said, it's the only thing that can change water. He said, it's the change agent, right? He said, so if you want to come back as someone your parents recognize, you have to be like that coffee bean. You got to change the pot of boiling water into a pot of coffee. You got to change the prison around you. And Andy, I mean, he told me what the first day of prison was going to look like. He said, Wes, when you get into prison and they let you in the life sentence building, he said, do not run to your bunk like the guys that are scared. He said, man, when you walk in that day room, you put your bags down, you put your back against the

wall and just let it happen that first day. And I'm like, man, what happened, dude? What are you talking about, man? He said, your heart check. Your heart check is the most important fight in prison. He said, you're a new face on the block. They don't know you. They're going to test you immediately when you get in there. The first guy that's going to come up to you is going to be a white guy because you're white.

He said, the first guy is not a threat to you. He's an information guy. He's a scout. He's going to ask you one relevant question. What gang do you want to be a part of? Get him out of your face as fast as you can and get ready. Get your head on the swivel. He can say it because the second guy comes up, he ain't coming to talk to you.

He's an enforcer. He's coming to hurt you. He said, when the second guy gets within range, put your fist in his mouth. He said, hit this dude as hard as you can. Don't even want to get a word out. And man, the prison bus is coming to pick me up. And the guy has four words for me out the door, man. Be a coffee bean. Be a coffee bean, man. I remember how I felt when he told me the story

of the coffee bean, Andy, because like, man, I could grasp that. And when I go around all over the world, sharing the story of the coffee bean, people understand, man, I do. I have three choices how this pot of boiling water is going to affect me. And we are in a pot of boiling water, Andy. And I mean, make no mistake. So I go to prison. I get there and it's the hardest thing I've ever been through in my life, man. Prison was a baptism by fire. And it would just, like you said, man, the first day I walk in, I go to the Mark Stiles unit in Beaumont, Texas. Stiles is one of the toughest prisons in Texas. It's one of the tougher prisons in America. And you know, Andy, in this new life, I can tell you a lot about tough prisons in America because

since I got out of prison in 2015, I went went back to school I got a master's in criminal justice and I became a professor at the University of Houston downtown teaching a class called prisons in America how about that for flipping the script a little bit right yeah the only professor on earth to teach a prisons class who lived in prison right so I know I know about prisons man and styles hard as it gets. So I'll walk in there, man. They take me to seven building,

which is where all the lifers live. Seven building G pod two section. I'm looking for 45. So when I walk in, the door closes behind me, I look up, I'm in this giant room, three tiers of cells,

man. And all the inmates are yelling and screaming. But as soon as they see this little white guy walk in, the volume drops to zero. And I'm sitting there, I'm about to pee in my pants. I'm looking for for 45 cell but it's up on the third so this is like an all thing that everybody in there knows like they all know to get quiet to scare the fucking new guy well yeah i mean but especially a new guy comes and look like me man i don't look

like anybody else in prison yeah man i don't look like anybody else in prison i don't i don't have any of the same background as you yeah man that's the day i was arrested that's july 30th 2008 i don't even look like you. Yeah. Isn't that crazy? Look at those eyes, man. Yeah, dude. Dead to the world.

You look like you belong in prison. Yeah. Yeah. I was a criminal. Yeah. And dude, when you break the social contract, that's where you're supposed to go. I deserve to go to prison. I mean, and I earned by 65 years, brother.

And I tell people all the time, prison saved me, Andy. It saved my damn life. And that SWAT team, those are my angels, brother. I mean, I look back now, that SWAT team on July 30, 2008, they didn't just arrest me that day. They rescued me that day. They pulled me out of a world. I couldn't get myself out of that, Andy.

I was going down. I was circling the drain. I was down the drain already. No, you'd be dead. Yeah, I'd be dead or it'd be a version of myself not worth living. No, bro, you'd be dead. Yeah. Yeah.

And so the SWAT team. We all know how those guys end up. Yeah, those SW be dead or it'd be a version of myself not worth living. No, bro, you'd be dead. Yeah. Yeah. And so the SWAT team. We all know how those guys end up. Yeah, those SWAT teams, those men and women saved me that day, man. And, you know, on July 30th, I follow Dallas SWAT on Instagram and I always message them, but I've never received any messages back from them, but I'd love to do something for them at some point. So if any of them are listening from Dallas SWAT, man, when this anniversary comes up on July 30th, I'm-

So you want them to bust you again? No. I want to have like a meal with them. You want to recreate? Yeah. I don't want to come through the window this time or knocking the door off the hinges. I want to like come sit down and talk to them. I'll just open the door, guys.

All right. So back to the prison. Okay. So walk in, man. So you walk in. Everybody's fucking screaming and hollering. There's fucking toilet paper. Oh, dude. It's crazy. So you walk in. Everybody's fucking screaming and hollering. There's fucking toilet paper. Oh, dude, it's crazy.

So it's three tiers of sales. There's inmates hanging over all the railings. And when I walk in, the volume drops to zero, and everybody's staring at the new guy. I got a mattress under one arm, a couple bags of property. And, man, I'm looking for 45 sale because I'm going to make a run for it. I mean, forget what Jackson said, right? I'm running, man.

But 45 sales up on the third tier by the shower. The furthest cell from the door. I'd never make it. So I put my mattress down. I put my bags down. I put my back against the wall and I waited. Here he comes. Just like Jackson. How long did it take? Huh? Oh, five minutes. Okay. Little bitty white dude comes up for a little bitty ball headed white dude. He's tatted up from head to toe. Even his eyelids are tatted up, man. He gets up in my face. He says, Hey, white boy. He said, what family are you riding with white boy? They call gangs families, right? And I'm like, man, get out of my face, little dude. I'm riding with God.

Please just leave me alone. I'm riding with God. Man, he laughed at me. He said, God. He said, God? Man, God isn't here, white boy. He said, we kicked God out of here a long time ago. But we're here, and we're coming to get you.

He shoots up the stairwell on the right side. I mean, I'm ready to pee in my pants, Andy. I don't have long to wait because coming down the third tier, biggest corn-fed white dude I've ever seen in my life. This dude is a giant, man. He's a freaking ogre, right, man? Just huge, muscled up, ripped dude. He's coming down the stairwell.

I get a good look at him head up, right? Huge muscles ripping out of his shirt, bald head with a swastika all around the top of his skull, man. Man, all I see is a swastika, two bitty eyeballs, muscles coming at me. My back's against the wall, Andy, but I remember what Jackson said, and I could be coached. I played sports all my life.

This guy gets within range of me. Man, I hit this dude in the mouth. Boom! As hard as I can. My feet come off the ground. I hit him so hard, Andy. And in 20 seconds, my first fight in prison was over because that big dude beat me

from one side of the day. He beat the hell out of me that day. And that, that's what prison fighting looked like for me. I mean, two months, man. It took me two weeks to get through the white gangs. After that, it was the black gangs. And sometimes more than one at a time. Because the rules are off the table for a guy who's trying to go independent.

And I remember six weeks in, I got jumped on a Friday, man, by a bunch of guys. And man, they were trying to break me. And that was my moment. I was broken, man. I even thought about killing myself. But Monday after that, six weeks into prison. Now, look, man, I've probably gotten in three dozen fights in that first two month period. And I lost 75% of those fights. I got my butt kicked a lot in prison, but I won because I kept showing up because Jackson said, you don't have to win those fights. And guys in prison, they don't care about wins and losses. They just want to see if you're going to get up and defend yourself. Much like what goes on in society, man. No one's caring about your wins. You care

about your wins and losses. No one else does. But everybody's watching to see does he or she get back up when the adversity hits. So I just kept getting up. Six weeks into prison, man, this is when it all changed. The only thing I haven't used at this point to earn respect in prison is my athletic ability. God bless me to be a tremendous athlete. But man, that rec yard where you play sports, it's the most intimidating place I've ever seen. It was the most segregated place I've ever seen.

Andy, the rec yard on the life sentence building of that prison, man, every sport was segregated by the color of your skin. I mean, like sand volleyball, whites and Hispanics only. No blacks allowed in the sand. Handball, all the races can play handball. But if you wanted to play partners and double up, your partner has to be the same skin color as you. No blacks allowed in the sand. Hand ball, all the races can play hand ball, but if you wanted to play partners and double up, your partner has to be the same skin color as you. You can't mix the races.

The weight stack, same thing. Just like you see in prison movies. Everybody wants to push out iron in prison, and all the races can lift weights. But if you want someone to spot you or someone to work out with you, your partner, your spotter, has to be the same skin color as you.

You cannot mix the races. You can't even sit down and eat a meal at a table with people of a different race in the life sentence building. Race is everything. So that Monday morning, six weeks into prison, I go out to the rec yard. I pass up all those other sports and I go straight to the basketball court. Who do you think runs the basketball court, Andy? Oh, wait, I think I know, Gary. I bet it's the white guys. DJ, who is it? I'll tell you. It's the Blacks, the brothers. They run it, man.

And no white boys are allowed in that basketball court. But you know, I grew up in this little town called Port Arthur, Texas. Man, I've been the only white boy in the basketball court all my life. And I played sports all my life. And I know I can take a couple of these guys in a game of basketball. So man, I get myself in a basketball game that Monday morning, man. I snatch the ball when the game is over in one game. And I won't let the ball go until they let me shoot a shot to see if I can play right. So I get in the game and that first day,

that Monday out there, man, it's the most brutal basketball. I mean, it's not five on five basketball. It's nine on one. My own teammates don't want me out there, man. And you can punch, kick, scratch, bite, pull hair, but I survived. And I go out the next day, the next day, the next day. I learned two things about adversity that week, Andy. I learned that adversity is never as bad as you think it's going to be and you're always capable way more than you think you are because how we think matters and we let overthinking get in the way of overcoming all the time and so man after a week of playing basketball those guys the black circled up around me was a blood from houston named jay blood man big old dude yeah but says you know what west you pull something off out here we've never seen a white boy pull off

before. You took everything we had. You gave it back when you could. You didn't get racial with us, so you don't have to worry about the blacks the rest of the time in your prison, man. You're good with us. Damn, dude. That was it, man. That's pretty cool. Yeah, man. The violence is finally over. The threat to my physical safety is gone, but man, two months into prison, man, I'm becoming an

egg, and it's hard, man. Prison's the hardest environment I've ever been in. That's one of the strengths of this story that I tell is like, I did this in a maximum security prison. There's a lot of different places you can call a pot of boiling water, but this is the worst place I've ever seen. And I was thinking about what Jackson told me, man, right before I left county jail, I asked him, I said, what am I going to find more of when I get to prison? And his answer was profound. It was the most intelligent man I've ever met. He said, you're going to find more eggs, Wes. And here's why. He said, the egg is a natural evolution of any human being inside of any difficult situation. He said, you're going to go

in the most difficult situation on the earth. He said, the truth is you'll probably become the egg too. And man, he was right, Andy. He was right about everything. But I finally figured out that my thinking was everything inside that place, that it didn't matter where I was and you can bloom where you're planted. And I started working on myself inside that prison. I started getting up every single day and I focused on the gratitude, the things I could be happy about in life. And even though I'm inside of a prison, there's still things I could be happy about in life. I've got a family out there that

loves me. I had, you know, my family never let go of me, Andy. They came to visit me over 150 times when I was in prison. I lived in, I was in prison in Beaumont, Texas in Port Arthur, Texas, where I'm from. It's the town right next to it. So my parents came to see me almost every weekend. You know, I met your dad a while ago in the weight room. Your dad reminded me of my dad, man. He just, just had the same age, man. Same from Missouri. From Missouri. So I mean, it's like, my parents never gave up on me and I got up every day, man. And I told myself that no matter where I am, the person I want to be when I get out of this, I've got to become that person today. I want to be someone that can add value back in the world. I want to be useful again again but i've got to figure out how to do that in here and if i could do that in here then i could do it anywhere

and after seven years and three months in prison it was uh it was november of 2015 the parole board comes to see me and um the lady from parole has got my criminal file in front of her it's about this thick you know and she's flipping through the pages of it for about 20 seconds and she slammed the file shut she pushed it it away. She said, Mr. West, I came here today to ask you one question for your parole hearing. And she said, the answer to my question is not in the file about the guy I'm reading about who committed all those crimes. She said, we don't see a lot of Damon West come through the system, by the way. She said, you had it all, every advantage, every privilege, and every opportunity. She said, you're the definition of a privileged person. And I did. I had all the advantages of everybody in life. I came from a

great family just like you. And all the opportunities were there in front of me. Sports, you play college sports, you understand this. And so she said, you didn't just change yourself while you were in this prison. She said, there's no doubt about the change you made to yourself. She said, you changed this entire prison around you. She said, one man was able to change this prison. She said, my question for you today is this. She said, if you could be remembered for being anything in life, anything at all, she said, tell me what that would be in just one word. Go. And man, I breathed out and relaxed. That's an easy question for a coffee bean. And I fire her answer back at her. I was like, ma'am, useful. I just want to be useful. And like you were

talking about, people that earn a second chance, they're just trying to be useful. And like you were talking about, people that earn a second chance, they're just trying to be useful, man. People that make mistakes, they want to be useful again. And I think everybody wants to be useful at the core. And November 16th, 2015, I walked out of a Texas prison. Now, I'm not a free man. You're not looking at a free man in front of you. I got a little more time left on parole. I'm on parole. It's only like 65 more years. I'm on parole till 2073. So from the recording of this, I got 50 more years. And that means every month in Beaumont, Texas, I go see Ms. Braggs, my parole officer. Ms. Braggs, if you're listening, I go pee in a cup for Ms. Braggs. I pay a fine to Ms. Braggs. I get a travel permit for Ms. Braggs every time I travel. In fact,

I got one for first form today. That's right. But I mean, I don't let Pearl hold me back. I don't let any of these things hold me back in life because I think that growth follows belief. Once you believe in yourself, other people can believe in you too, you know? Yeah, bro. The world treats you as you present yourself. Absolutely.

And you showed that with your company and how you grew it. And you know- That means if you believe in yourself, they're going to believe in you too. Right. That's what I mean by that. I got a great story. It's all the way around. They think it's that they think it's the world gives you permission to be something. It's not that at all. Like it's what you decide you are. And then you become that even if you're acting as if you are that and you know you're not that yet, the world reciprocates with that sort of attention. So really, dude, we all tell the

world how to treat us and they treat us exactly how we tell them to. Absolutely. And if you're willing to put yourself out there, this is one of the things that you have to put yourself out there. You got to put yourself in a position to fail sometimes, a lot of times, because great story for you about that. So January 12th, 2017, I've been out of prison 14 months at this point. And I've started sharing my story locally in the Southeast Texas area where I live, wherever I can find someone to let me come in and speak. But I really want to be speaking in front of college athletic program, college football specifically, because I played division one college quarterback in North Texas back in the nineties. But man, it's been 20 years. So I've taken a snap. Andy, these college coaches don't know shit. I saw you take a snap the other

day, 70 fucking yards. Yeah, man. I can still gun it, man. I'll be 48 pretty soon. And I can still throw about 65, man. So, but I'm video proof too. That's it, man. We'll put it up on YouTube. We'll throw it right here. Yeah. We'll throw that shit right here. People watch this shit. We'll throw it up on YouTube. I got it throw it right here yeah we'll throw that shit right here people watch this shit we'll throw it up on youtube i guess i gotta yeah it's it's wild put that in for real yeah i'll put it in for real and i told you guys i give them a bunch of b-roll for this thing um i was with your contract yeah well and dac prescott's you know today dac dac prescott and i were working together on this movie deal to turn my story into a netflix limited series or a tv show whatever but uh dac had his little football camp that i volunteer at every every summer and that's where you saw the video

of me chunking it man yeah um but january 12th 2017 the world's a little bit different i um i've been out of prison for 14 months what was that like what was that like going in and then coming out in the world being so different man phones were the first thing that really tripped me out. When I got arrested, phones had buttons, right? My mom hands me an iPhone the day I get out. She hands it to me in the backseat of the car. They came to pick me up from prison.

And man, I couldn't get the thing to light up. I don't know where the buttons, you know? But prison was the adjustment back in. One of the hardest things to get adjusted to in prison, the threat of violence is the glue that holds the whole thing together. Because if you step out of line in prison, you could lose your life. You can certainly get hurt. You can lose an eyeball. I've seen guys lose eyeballs. I mean, there's a lot of repercussions to treating someone offensively in prison. You have to own every action you have in prison.

But there's no threat of violence like that in society, for good measure in some way. But I think some ways we've gone too far about pulling that back, right? There's not enough threat out there. In some ways, people can act any way they want. No, there's too much disrespect and no repercussions. Way too much disrespect. And that was one of the things to get adjusted to, man. I'm out of prison and people are bumping into me. I'm going out to go shopping at the mall or something like that. Where inside, that'd be something to deal with. Brother, you bump into somebody in prison, you got to own it. My bad, or excuse me, or let like that. Or inside, that'd be something to deal with. Brother, you bump into somebody in prison, you got to own it.

Like, my bad, or excuse me, or let's fight. You know, those are your options to come out of your mouth. You might not even get a chance to apologize. Yeah, right. If you bump into somebody in prison, you got to own that. And like, for example, like if someone in prison comes up and says,

hey man, what size are your shoes? They're your size. Yep, that's it. That's it, DJ. That's the only answer that's acceptable inside of prison. Your size. They're your size. Come get them. Yeah. Real shit. So January 12th, 2017, man. I've acclimated back in. I got a job working at a law firm, Andy. I did my own legal work in prison. These lawyers took notice of it. And they even told me when I was in prison, if you ever get out of, you put together a hell of a legal writ for a guy who's never been to law school. If you get out of prison, come see us.

We got a job for you, man. Second day out of prison, I'm working at one of the most prestigious firms in Southeast Texas, right? So there I am, 14 months into prison, working at the law firm, but I'm just sharing my story and the message of the coffee being locally because no one's really given me a shot yet. Buddy of mine from Houston calls me up. A guy named Mike Orta. Mike Orta calls me up. He's in Mike order. Mike order calls me up.

He's in Houston, 90 miles away. He said, Damon tonight is the bear Bryant coach of the year award. They're going to name the best college football coach in America. He said, the eight best coaches in the country are in this room tonight at the Toyota center.

I've got an extra press pass. If you want to go, he works with media. You know what I mean? You better want to go. So I drive the 90 miles from Beaumont to Houston after work. I'm driving. I'm practicing my elevator pitch, Andy, what I'm going to tell these guys, you know, when I get in

front of them. And he sneaked in the Toyota center, hands me a press pass and I hit the ground running. And all the best coaches are there that night, man. USC, Wisconsin, Penn State, they're all there, right? And I get to go up and I meet these coaches and I shake their hands and I'm pressing the flesh and I'm giving them my pitch, why they should bring me in to talk to their team. And every coach I meet that night slams the door in my face. I mean, they're all telling me, no, it's a bloodbath, Andy. In one hour, I got seven no's from the eight coaches that are there. That's a no every eight minutes, man. Yeah, but there was eight coaches. I'm in the corner of the Toyota Center. I'm licking my wounds. I'm feeling sorry for myself. And the voice in my head is screaming at me. Go home, you imposter.

What are you doing in this room? Right? That's that voice talking. That's fear. I'm going to tell you something. I quit doing a long time ago, listening to myself. I never listened. I talked to myself.

I talked to myself a lot. Now I'm telling myself, I'm pumping myself back up. You're not leaving, Damon. You're not going anywhere. That last coach is going to tell you no to your face. And the last coach, hardest guy to get to in the room. His team had just beat Alabama two nights before for the national championship. Everybody wants a piece of this man's time. But I'm reminding myself too, over there in the corner, you survived

prison, Damon. You survived something way worse than this. Now, I'm applying perspective of what a bad day looks like. And we all own this perspective in life. We forget about that sometimes. We think things are bad. A real bad day, that's when a marriage fails. That's when a bankruptcy happens. A job is lost, man. A child gets hurt. A child dies. That's a bad day. Most of our days aren't one of those. So I'm like, you know what, Damon? You're not going anywhere until this last coach tells you no. So I stalk Dabo Sweeney around this room. And I look like a nut, man. I'm hiding behind fake plants. I'm weaving in and out of tables. I mean, security's looking at me, man. Security's going to come take me away. But I finally pass on Dabo. And I give him a minute of my best stuff, man. I come up for air after talking for about a minute. And Dabo's like, dude, you got a card

on you or something. So I give him my card and he takes off because I've occupied this guy more than anybody else tonight. He takes off and over his shoulder, he says, I'll check you out. And he's gone. I'm like, man, that's a no. I went 0 for 8 that night, Andy, but I felt good about the last no because I left it all on the field. And that's where we learn lessons from like when we play sports, man, you give it your best effort. Sometimes you come up short. Sales.

You knock on every door. You make every call. Or Jackson says, man, you don't have to win all your fights. Just go fight your fights, man. So I fought all my fights, went home and slept like a baby. Forgot all about it. Four months later, I get an email from the director of football operations at Clemson University, a guy named Mike Dewey. And Mike Dewey's email said, hey, Damon, Coach Sweeney met you at a award show in Houston.

He'd love to have you come talk to the team. Do you have August 1st open? Dude, I got every first open. I got nothing going on in my life this time. So August 1st, 2017, I go speak to the Clemson Tigers, the defending national champs of college football. And when I get done with my presentation that night, Dabo Sweeney's in my face. Dabo's a very high-energy guy too. And Dabo's like, man, that's the most amazing story I've ever heard. I've never seen my players respond like that to a speaker's story.

He said, have you been to Alabama yet? I'm like, no, Dabo. I've been to Clemson. I haven't been anywhere, Dabo. He said, we'll see about that. He said, I just texted Nick Saban from the back of the room the next day. I get a voicemail and a text message from the director of football operations at the University of Alabama.

We'll see you in Tuscaloosa, August 21st, 7.30 p.m. There's your window of opportunity. Just like that, Dabo Sweeney starts kicking open the door to college football. He calls everybody. I mean, Kirby Smart starts calling me, Lincoln Riley, all these coaches around America start calling me saying, when are you coming to talk to my team? Dabo said, I've got to bring you in.

That's badass, dude. Badass, dude. Yeah. The one yes and the no. Dude, all those no's and I got the one yes. But the real magic wasn't even happening yet, man. It was August of 2018. I just think it's cool that he did that for you.

Oh, and he still does. And it speaks a lot to the kind of dude he is. Yeah, he's one of my best friends and my mentors. And Dabo has shown me through his own actions what some of the best attributes are of a servant leader, man. A servant leader is a connector. You connect people to other people, man. You help other people out. You help raise other people up to a different station in life. What you've done with First Form.

You've raised a lot of people up. You talk about this. You've got a lot of people that depend on you, man. You raise them up. That's what a real leader does. And Dabo showed me through his actions. It was August of 2018. I was at the law firm that day.

And I remember I was working. My cell phone rings. And on the other end of my cell phone is this guy named John Gordon. And John Gordon is one of the biggest motivational speakers and authors in America. Man, this is the energy bus guy. I follow John on Twitter every day for my inspiration. And I'm like, dude, John, man, I know who you are, man. How do you know?

He's a fucking legend. Yeah. I'm like, how do you know who I am, John? Yeah. He said, Dabo Sweeney. He said, I just got done speaking to Clemson's football team. And Dabo told me, Dabo brought me in the office, Damon. For 30 minutes, he tells me your entire story.

And he said, Damon, he told me the story of the coffee bean. He said, I looked it up, man. No one's ever shared the story. I don't even know where you came from. But he said, and he said this in 2018 before the pandemic, Eddie. He said, the world needs the coffee bean message, Damon. Will you write a book with me? We'll call it the coffee bean.

Let's share this message with the world. And man, the next summer, the summer of 2019, exactly 10 years after I first heard the story from Mr. Jackson in County Jail, the book, The Coffee Bean comes out, becomes a bestseller here in America. Then it's all over the world. It's almost every language in the world now, Chinese, Spanish, Arabic, French, Italian. They all have a version of The Coffee Bean on their bookshelves because The Coffee Bean is one of those rare messages that can be translated into any language because everybody understands a carrot and egg and a coffee bean and a pot of boiling water. And it's just taken off and exploded.

And my speaking career exploded from that because in my presentation, you hear about a guy that had it all, lost it all, threw it all away, fought his way back, and started applying these rules of being a coffee bean and came out on the other side to be a success story. And it shows people that-

Massive success. Yeah, and if I could do it in there, then you could do it out here. That's the power side to, to be a success story. And it shows people that massive success. Yeah. And if I could do it in there, then you can do it out here. And that's the power of it, man. I mean, what, what do you say all the time is the ultimate rebellion, personal excellence, personal excellence, the ultimate rebellion. And that's, man, I'm on parole the rest of my life, Andy, but I traveled the world sharing a message with people that gives them hope. Yeah. And everybody has to have hope. Wow, dude. It's an awesome story, brother. And what you're doing is amazing work. Um, where can people find your book? Pretty much anywhere, anywhere books are sold. People find me speaking at my website, Damon west.org. And, uh, the books are on Amazon anywhere books are sold, stuff like that. What's the name of the

book? Uh, my autobiography is the change agent, but the book that everybody knows me by is the coffee bean. Yeah. Guys, check it out. Yeah. How to Be a Coffee Bean. We wrote another book about the coffee. John and I were like, man, we got inundated with people when they heard this message for the first time. They're like, do you have more principles of it? Yeah.

I've been trying to get John on the show. It's just that we haven't been able to align the schedules right. Oh, man. I'd love to have him on, though. I mean, he's done a lot of really good things for people, man. Dude, John's great, man. He is. I mean, dude, Andy, the two biggest people in my life are Dabo Swinney and John Gordon.

Those guys have done more to shape my life and help me. Is John how you got connected with Ed? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, John's how I got connected with Ed. That's another great story. I wanted to talk to Ed because Ed talks about his dad and AA and stuff like that. I'm in AA.

And John made that happen, man. John made the connection with Ed, too. I was with John Sunday night in Vegas. There was a big dinner with a bunch of NBA people. He was like, Damon, you need to be at this dinner. I landed in Vegas at 2.30 Sunday and left at 12.50 in the morning. I was there for less than 10 hours because John Gordon told me

to be there. I do everything John says. Everything. It seems to be working. Yeah, man. You need to get John on. I think we're working on it right now yeah i think emily's trying to schedule it so my god man he would be incredible he's a wonderful human we've had it a couple times it's just the dates my schedule uh and his schedules weren't able to align so i think we got it coming up great guy but he won't bring you a first form football. No, he won't. That thing is badass. So Damon brought me a custom collegiate football with our logo on it.

It's one of one. It's kind of foreshadowing. Because one day it will actually be that way. Dude. Just saying. Okay. I love it. Foreshadowing. I will.

You got to visualize and touch your dreams. You just touched it. Yeah. It's going to happen. So, all right. So you know how the show works, right? Absolutely. All right.

People will submit questions and we'll kind of, we'll triple team them here. Yeah. We'll technically just double team. Is that what they do over there in the Mandango Kings or whatever? Yeah, Mandigo. Mandingo Warriors. Mandingo Warriors. Be careful now.

Okay. I'm just saying. I'm just saying. I'm not'm just saying. I'm just saying. I'm not trying to disrespect. I'm just saying. No, man, let's get into it, man. Guys, Damon, question number one. All right.

Andy, my biggest problem, which is also the number one thing that holds me back in all areas of being successful in life, is a fear of confrontation. Anytime there's a need for me to be assertive, whether it's at work, family, dating, socializing, I always remain passive and let the other person win or have their way. This has kept me from having a management position at work and has also kept me from successfully having a girlfriend. People think I'm weak. What's your best advice to overcome this issue of avoiding confrontation? What do you think? So a lot of people have a fear of confrontation. I think it's pretty normal. I think it's pretty normal. I think most people have it. Yeah. And

I think most people have it. And look, I mean, I'm going to tell you, to be honest, I have a fear of confrontation. No one likes it. I don't like it either. Yeah. I mean, and I and I mean, like, I, I know that if I'm a bit, you know, the butterflies, you talk about stuff like that. I get those still if I'm a, you know, any kind of confrontation, but, but I do know this, that most pain that you're going to experience is not going to last as long as the pain of not trying and having to look at yourself in the mirror all the time and say, man, I could have, should have, would have, you know, the pain that you're going to feel, even if it's physical pain, if you got to had to get into a fistfight or something like that, that goes away a lot quicker than the pain of never doing anything. The feeling that you get from not doing anything.

And that's that regret, that regret, that regret could have, would have, should have, you know, if I walk out the door that night at the Toyota center without talking to Dabo Sweeney, we're not having this conversation today. Dude, was I scared that night? Yeah, you bet I was scared. I felt like an imposter. You know, I think it has to do with asking yourself the right questions in those scenarios. You know, a lot of people ask,

what could go wrong if I do this? And that's what they focus on. But like, what I always focus on in tough situations is what happens if I don't do it? What happens if I don't? What happens if you don't talk to Dabo Sweeney? Yeah. Nothing. And that's the worst thing ever. Right. And so it's, you know, I, I think that when it comes to confrontation, I think it stems from, I think it's a bigger problem than just being afraid to have confrontation because I think the way society is built right now,

we don't learn to properly communicate because we're always on our phones or we're working through social media or we have text or internet. Right. Whereas when you and I grew up, you know, we're old enough to have interpersonal relationship skills built in because that's how we did shit with the option. There was no other option. There wasn't, there was no way to dumb it down. So like you have to learn at some point in time how to interact with other people and how to not, you know, how to hold your line and stand for yourself. Or you fucking like back in those days,

you just get picked on and beat up all the time. Now you might not get picked on or beat up, but you find yourself in a situation where people perceive you as weak. And I give this person a lot of credit for asking this question because just to have the courage to even ask this question shows that they're aware that they're perceived as a weak person, which is something that very many people, not very many people are capable of even doing. So the fact that you're aware of this and that you understand that this problem is real and it's affecting your life is a huge deal because most people never do that. So we have a society that's built for antisocial behavior. And so that creates a situation where it's even harder to do confrontational, you know, conflict or stand for yourself or learn any of these things because that's built upon communication skills, right? So my advice to this person would be a couple

things. But first thing is you got to get yourself comfortable having conversations with people in real life. And one of the ways I did this, because I'm an introvert, I'm not a naturally, you know, I don't know if you're naturally how you are, but I'm not. I've had to like develop this skill set of being social. And my natural state is kind of like I just keep my mouth shut and I do my thing. And I really don't like people to talk to me. And that's my natural. So I have to work to become social.

And I've had to put in a lot of work to do that. And the reason I put in all the work to do that was because i realized that if i wasn't social like this i realized it was going to fuck up my life mainly my business life because to sell you have to be social and you have to be able to talk to people and so what i did is i made up this little game uh that i did for years and years and years and i would actually go into the grocery store and I would make myself talk to three strangers before I could leave. Okay. And not like, hey, how you doing? Like I would have to have a real conversation. So I would have to look for

something of common interest and try to start a conversation, whether it be something like, you know, somebody's looking at baked beans right and you're like oh you know you see that they got bushes baked beans right and you're like are those bushes as good as they say they are right like you have to develop this this it sounds cheesy yeah but what will happen is you'll start to dissipate this fear of actually interacting with humans and i did this for for years every single day, okay? Because it takes time. But what happens is, is you become comfortable and you learn that there's nothing really to fear about other people. And that actually makes you able to have a tough conversation

much more easily than it would be if you didn't have those skills at all. So I would start there. I would start and assess your own personal social skills. And if those need to be addressed in a positive way, just play that game I played. Go to the grocery store, talk to three people. When you have three conversations with strangers, fucking go home. And sometimes it takes 10 minutes. Sometimes it takes 30 minutes, but it's a minor energy investment for maximum return because you start to really develop into somebody who can speak to people, which is the most valuable skill in the world. I love what you said too, because like, and if you do that today, you did this coming up at a different time when the phones weren't everywhere. You're going to

actually teach the other person you're probably going up to and talking to, you're going to make them get out of their comfort zone and have a conversation with a stranger too. And if you do it with the right perspective, you could actually make their day. Yeah. You can make their day. Right. You can make their day. You told the story. I mean, that's the intent. That's something Ed taught me. So Ed taught me this about speaking a long time ago, um, about if I go on stage with the proper intent, I can actually prepare far less because I realized that all I'm trying to do is help these people learn some shit. And which has actually made me a more effective speaker because I can just be myself and then make sure I'm getting the impact. So if you have the intent, when you approach these

people that you're going to make them feel good when you walk away, like I'm going to make their day. Now it becomes easy to approach them. Yeah. And I think that's great. And now we're talking again about servant leadership. We're back to, because you know, this idea of servant leadership, it's passed around and a lot of, and there's people in the motivational world that beat this to death. But it's like, to me, that's the ultimate thing is when I can try to be a positive force in someone else's life, serve other people, that takes me out of all my problems too, man. Somebody once told me, it was at an AA meeting, said, if we could all throw our problems on

a pile and we go up to that pile and we can pick up anybody else's problem we take ours you throw your own problem back over your shoulder that's right i'm out of here man when you start seeing what other people are dealing with and so this person asked this question this man or the woman asked this question first of all they practice vulnerability vulnerability is a strength man a huge strength huge strength man it gets a bad rap you can't honestly assess yourself unless you're okay being vulnerable that's it and when you're vulnerable you let your guard down and you draw other people closer to you. So this vulnerability, this person practicing the question, you're already there. You already have something that most people can't do, which is to be vulnerable and let

your guard down. And know that like Ed says this, man, Ed says, on the other side of the adversity is the best version of you. But you have to go through the adversity to meet that best version of you and shake their hand. And so if this person will use the skills that they already currently have and even practice that three person the grocery store type thing you're talking about they're going to find out that once they go through that they're going to become the best versions they're going

to meet the best version of themselves yeah and that's the thing like all of you guys listening they all everybody struggles with this ever this is a question or type of question that we get a lot. People all feel alone and people all hesitate to talk to other people. And it's the nature of our society structure right now. So a lot of people are struggling with this exact thing. So if you can get comfortable having interpersonal conversations cold with someone you don't even know, there's going to be far less fear about when you have to have the hard conversations. Correct. Okay. And then the other thing that I think this person needs to do is you're going to practice saying no without explaining it. Okay. No is a complete sentence. Powerful. Very, very powerful. And when you can

learn to just say no and just keep walking and not explain it, at first you're going to feel like a dick. But after a while, people are going to start to respect you and they're going to see you differently. And that gives you strength and confidence to have more difficult conversations because the reason that we have a hard time with interpersonal conversations or dealing with a job, like the reason this person can't be a manager is because you lack the ability to say no,

that's really your whole thing that you're missing. So practice saying no and without apologizing and without trying to explain it. Um, and then if they want an explanation, you can explain it, but like, don't do this gushing shit where you're like unsolicited.

No, but I'd really like to do it, blah, blah, blah that's weak yeah okay what's what's not weak is no and then the other person says either okay or they say okay well why and then that gives you a chance to have the confrontational conversation you say well because it doesn't make sense because of this and this and this. It's nothing personal. Maybe it is personal, but it gives you a chance to explain it. And now you have their full attention because you said no. All right.

How many times you see me do that? Do I explain myself to anybody? I don't give a fuck. Fuck you if you don't get it. But you know what? The other thing is just fucking no. No, you're right. Correct.

Not no, but correct. That's what you said. And the other thing is this, like, you're correct. No one really loves confrontation. But you know what? I'll go into the confrontation. I go into it. I go into the storm, like the buffalo and the cows thing or whatever that people talk about.

Yeah, that's right. I'm going into the storm. Yeah. And I know that a lot of people don't like confrontation. So I'll initiate. If I know it's going to have to come at some point, I'm going to try to make it happen on my terms. You know, if I know there's going to be a difficult conversation coming up,

then it's going to be my home field advantage. And I'm going to you now. Yep. I'm going to take you because I know that not everybody likes this. Try to get on the offensive of that. And dude, I think that's great advice. And I also think, you know, sometimes, sometimes there's nothing you can do. The confrontation is coming to you and it is what the offensive of that. And dude, I think that's great advice. And I also think, you know, sometimes, sometimes there's nothing you can do.

The confrontation is coming to you and it is what the fuck it is. Just like this dude coming down in the prison. Yeah, it's coming. First day, it's coming. Here it is. There's nothing I can do. I got to do what I can do. And sometimes the answer is,

you just got to do what you got to do. That's it. And that's it, man. I love that move. Yeah, I love that. Great. Dude, that's a massive skill set that you should all work on.

And I highly recommend that little hack that I did for all those years for anybody that struggles. Another tip is if you get yourself a job or a place of employment, even if it's a side gig in a retail environment where you get to talk to many people in a day, because, dude, this comes down to reps. It's like anything else, bro. You didn't learn how to throw a football. You didn't pick up a football at one time, throw it 65 yards. No, no, it was thousands and hundreds of thousands of throws over the course of your life. And, and to get good with people, guess what? It's hundreds of thousands

of, of, of interactions and conversations. And so anytime you could put yourself in a position that's social, all right, for me, it was, I got to work at the bars. Okay. And then I also worked retail during the day so think of the amount of people i talked to just by sheer number all throughout the day all the time now that many reps took someone who's completely introverted and made them into a pretty effective uh you know extrovert when i decide i need to be right it's a skill yeah and um no matter how shy you are no matter how introverted introverted you think you are you can become one of these amazing communicators by practice it's a skill i mean andy can i say something about that right man you're you're

hitting on something get in the reps man that's so important get in your reps because you can't get good at something unless you practice at it yeah and if we're not good at something, there's only one way to get better. Yeah. It's reps. Reps. When I got out of prison, man, I told you, I was trying to share my message in the area where I lived, man. Very few people, I mean, you can't just walk out of a prison, go knock on the door of a

school and say, I want to talk to your kids. I just got out of the joint. You know, they'll throw you in the wood chipper, right? So, but what I could do, and I actually found a local law enforcement officer and a local judge that would escort me in to take me in at first because that's the only way i could get into a school so there are very few places that i could go speak at the first two years whenever i paroled out of prison i lived with my parents for the first two years i mean like you know i'm 40 years old i live with my parents i make minimum wage you know i live in my parents' spare bedroom. If I had a Tinder profile, it would have sucked, right? But in my parents' spare bedroom-

I'm in transition right now. In my parents' spare bedroom, there was a mirror and it just happened to be in there. That's just a piece of furniture that was in there. But I got in front of that mirror every single day for two years, Andy, and I practiced this presentation. The same presentation that I'm out there doing around the world right now, that started in my parents' spare bedroom. Every day that I didn't have a place to speak, I spoke in front of that mirror. And if I had a place to speak out there, I wouldn't get my rep in in front of the mirror, but I got my reps in. And almost exactly two years when I walked out of prison, when I spoke to Dabo's team for the first time, guess what I had? A polished presentation,

no hiccups no ums none of that stuff it was on fire because i got my reps in in front of that mirror every single day for two years it's dude it's the solution to most things yeah most things that you suck at can be overcome by just reps real talk reps it's people just don't want most people just don't want to be seen doing that shit when they suck at it right like you guys weren't following me on social media because it didn't exist thank god when i was this person right like by the time social media came around for me i could talk pretty good you know what i'm saying but like i wasn't always that way it wasn't always that way for me and and

like so i'm speaking to these shy people out there. Like you guys have all that potential to become exactly what it is you wish you had. You've just got to be willing to be kind of rough around the edges at it for a while. It'll work, dude. You hit the nerve with that one, man. That's it. Yeah, it's great. Guys, Andy. Damon, question number two.

Andy, how do you mentally power through difficult challenges in life? My wife has been out of work for about a year and a half and we've had home repairs, rental property repairs, car breakdowns left and right over the last few months. I'm an individual that is addicted to progress. So when these things keep coming up and my progress is stunted, it takes a heavy toll on me mentally. So how do you mentally power through difficult challenges in life? Man, dude, that's a tough question because we all know the saying, like it wouldn't be a saying if it wasn't true. When it rains, it pours. Right. And you can't fix a leaky roof in the rain.

Yeah. So we all deal with this because success and hardship come in waves. When you're winning, this is just my experience, but like I said, it wouldn't be a saying if it wasn't true. When you're winning, the wins come easy, dude. And they keep coming and they keep coming and they keep coming. And that's why I stress you guys so hard about keeping the momentum going as best you can, because we want to try to extend the winning streaks as long as we can. Right. And the best way that we can do that is by controlling our momentum.

And that's why I'm big on that. But no matter how good you are at controlling momentum, guess what? It's still going to fucking rain. Okay. And when it rains, it's especially if you've been someone who is driven by progress like this person is, it's going to feel even a sprinkle is going to feel like a fucking hurricane like you hate it because i can relate to this person dude i am total offense all the time and inevitably every three or four years there's a

period of time where shit gets hard and you know i've personally think that when those times come, when shit is extremely hard, what I personally do and what I believe in is I use that time to get as the get myself in the best possible place that I can. This is where I lean into things like the Live Hard program and 75 Hard. This is where I say, OK. the Live Hard program and 75 Hard. This is where I say, okay, I understand that shit's fucked up. I understand it's not where I want to be, whether it's my fault, whether it's just natural waves of up and down. But I am going to do every single thing that I could possibly do to move through this. Meaning I take total control of my life. All the controllables that are available to me, I control them the best that I possibly can. I control what I eat. I control the energy I'm around. I control how I move. I control the books I read. I control every single aspect of my life

that is possible for me to control. I do the best I possibly can because what you're doing there is you're starting to crawl again. Okay. You're starting to move again. And when you see your physical start to change and you see you feel good because you've been putting good things in your brain and you've been eliminating the negativity, you start to recognize that momentum starting to be built again. Okay. And sometimes it takes some time to get it going, but eventually it'll catch again and you'll be on the winning streak again. And so where most people fuck this up is that when shit gets bad, they throw, they do the opposite.

They're like, fuck it. I'm already fucked. I might as well just go out and drink. I'm already, it's shit's already bad. I might, dude, you hear this shit. When do people say they need a drink?

You have some fucked up shit happening. Dude, it's a societal norm. Like shit goes bad or fuck. I need a fucking drink. Motherfucker. The last thing you need is a drink in that scenario. Correct. That's the absolute last thing.

Alcohol will always make a bad situation worse. Always. Okay. You ask fucking most of the dudes in prison you say how'd you get here it's gonna have to do with alcohol in some way shape or form i call drugs 80 80 of people so you know ask police officers how many of the calls deal with drunk people fucking most of them okay so alcohol is not a good idea when shit is bad and most people will just throw up their hands and not take any control because shit is bad. And most people will just throw up their hands and not take any control because shit is bad. All right. It's like, it's like the fat guy. Like I used to be all right. Who's eating,

uh, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm fucking 349 pounds and I'm like, fuck, I'm 349 pounds. What's three 50. It doesn't fucking matter. And so I would just gorge myself. You know what I'm saying? Like we get in these self-destructive cycles because that's what society typically does. But the appropriate action when things are hard is for you to control everything that you can control to give you some sort of sense that you can guide the ship where you need it to go. Okay. And that's, you asked how I do it.

I'm not saying that's the only way to do it, but that's how I do it. Okay. I dedicate myself. Like, dude, this last three years or the last fucking 18 months feels like fucking three years. I fucking blew my shoulder out. I couldn't train. I was in the best shape of my life.

I'm 42 years old when it happens. I fucking had to watch my entire physique fucking fade away because I can't do shit. I can't even wipe my own ass. All right. Can't do nothing. That's destroyed me mentally. Like fucking watching all that work I put in from when I was 350 pounds to becoming like legit fucking yoked. I had to watch it go away after I just put in the six years of fucking work it took. Bro, you talk about mental destruction. It was mental destruction.

Then on top of it, I'm like fuck it. I'm gonna fucking get off Uh antidepressants too. You know what i'm saying? Well fucking shit's already fucked up. Let's make it harder. Fuck it I'm getting rid of that So now i'm in this place where i'm like, you know what? This is gonna be on me dude, and you know what I did the whole fucking time I did the same shit. I tell you guys to do I did the live hard program I did fucking 75 hard in phase one, two, and three. And that's what's pulled me fucking through.

So you could, I mean, you don't have to do that program, but I would recommend it. It's extremely popular for a reason. It's not because it doesn't work. Despite what the New York Post says. Yeah. It might turn you into a domestic terrorist, but hey, the point is, is that

do the opposite of what most people do. Most people throw their arms up. They say, fuck it. I can't do anything. Everything is fucked. And you say, no, I'm going to pull myself out of this. And I'm going to do this because I'm going to control the shit that I can control. And what you'll find is that when you start controlling the things that you control, your

brain will actually start operating instead of this panic state, like, oh, fuck, what's happening? Because a lot of this shit we attract into our lives. A lot of these negative things happen in waves because we are constantly in a negative mindset. And so when you're in a negative mindset and you're thinking how fucked everything is, things continue to get more fucked because that's all you can see. And that's how the universe works. The universe works in an energy currency. You put shit out, it brings it back to you. So how do you get your mindset away from thinking everything is fucked up and back into the offense mode that this person, that only way to do it that I know is to take control of

the shit you can control. And that includes your food, your water, your energy, your information, your activity. And these things that we're talking about, it's five or six things that you're in absolute control of. They dictate most of your reality. Oh, yeah. No, you're absolutely. Andy, to that point, I'm like raising my hand over here.

You're hitting all the right notes, man. I tell people you control four things. This is what got me through prison. Hopefully, this will help this question, this guy asking this question. You control what you think. You control what you say. You control what you feel. What I mean is what do you do with your feelings?

Do you talk about what's going on? Are you a vulnerable person? Do you practice empathy? The last thing you control is what you do. That's your action. That covers your eating all your other stuff you know what you think what you say what you feel and what you do that's it man that's the whole ball game right there and everything else is not one of those four things you don't control it you have no control over it but if you can get yourself to a point where you allow the world to happen

around you in the areas you don't control and focus on those four things. Now you're focusing your time, your most precious resource, man. Time's a thing for all of us, man. If you can focus your time on the areas you can actually impact, your life changes. How much better does your internal dialogue get when you start to see when you're accomplishing things, when your body's changing, when you know you've done the right thing? Absolutely. How much better does your self-talk actually get? Because you made those right choices, like your food choices. It starts to create the momentum. And dude, I agree with you a hundred percent. What you say to yourself is of utmost

importance. And a lot of people, this person in this, in this situation, I'm going to bet that this person who asked this question is saying, what the fuck did I do to deserve all this? Or when is this going to get better? Well, there's also a saying that besides when it rains, it pours. Do you know what it is? It's always darkest before what? Dawn. Dawn. Okay. So there's always an end to the hard times. That's reality. And it happens for everybody. So let me tell you something that changed me. I deal with a lot of stress, dude. Like I'd probably deal with more i than that it's not even comparable to average person but even amongst entrepreneurs like i'm out of all the entrepreneurs

i know i'm running more shit than fucking any of them okay i have literal more companies dealing with more points of contact having more shit run and it's fucking overwhelming yeah i don't know how you do it no it's hard And when I wake up in the morning, I do it because I'm living what, what I'm telling this person to live. I have to live that way all the time. Otherwise I can't do it. So when you,

one thing that changed for me, dude, and, and, and dude, I still fuck this up, but it fucking makes the biggest difference in my day is that when I wake up, what do I think about first? What's my first thing I say to myself? That matters so much to how my day goes. And if I forget to do

what I'm about to tell you, my day is usually fucked. But if I do it, I usually kick ass that day. And dude, I wake up in the morning and you know what I think? Attack, attack, attack. It plays in my head like just like that. Attack, attack, attack. That means get up, be aggressive, go do it, get on offense. Go put in the work. That's right. And dude, when I do that, when I do that properly, I feel amazing. When I don't do that because of the outside uh you know influences and and responsibilities and distractions and texts and all this shit that i have coming at me all the time if i don't have that mindset of attack it's automatically react right and so now i'm on defense so now i'm overwhelmed now i'm like and you see this because you're with me all the time you know when i fuck

this up because what happens is is i get so overwhelmed i'm like you know what fuck all y'all i'm going home fuck you and that's what happened is that not what i do i go to fuck home and i say fuck you i ain't doing your shit and they get pissed at me and it really it fucks me because then i gotta do it tomorrow and then i do it yeah but they don't get. Yeah. But the point is, is like, I get so overwhelmed with the reaction and you can't win reacting, dude. You can only win attacking. And so like that thing, try that. Wake up in the morning and fucking say to yourself, attack, attack, attack, and get

the fuck up and go. Yeah. And I would also add to that. That's, that's, that's incredibly important, man. What, because you're going to talk to yourself more than anybody else talks to you yeah i mean you you talk to yourself more than anybody talks to you so what you say matters to yourself so say the right stuff but make little promises to yourself and keep those promises man that's how you build confidence doing that stuff um and that's on a subconscious level too people don't think about that like that we hear a lot

about this shit right especially because 75 hards gone mega viral and people start to understand that discipline is earned. It's not something that's a trait. And now we have all these people talking about discipline that think they know really it's because the fucking program is mega viral. And what they keep talking about is keeping promises themselves. But what they don't really hit on is why that actually works. And the reason it works is because you have a subconscious being inside of you that knows if you're full of shit or not. Right. Okay.

And if you make all these fucking promises to yourself, I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that. I'm going to do this. And you don't do those things. Your inner self thinks you're a bitch. Okay. And then you cannot respect yourself.

That's the voice you talk about all the time. It's the bitch voice. That's right. You cannot respect yourself. You cannot have yourself. That's the voice you talk about all the time. It's the bitch voice. That's right. You cannot respect yourself. You cannot have confidence. You cannot have self-esteem because your deepest inner subconscious being knows that you're full of shit. So you cannot fool yourself. So you have to live in alignment with exactly who you tell yourself you're going to be. Meaning when you make these little promises to yourself, it's so much more important that you keep them than you truly, really understand.

Sure. Because it's going to dictate how you feel about yourself. Really a hundred percent of the way. Like, I think this is everything. I think it's spiritually, mentally, physically. these are the areas to work out in every day. And like that stuff that you're talking about, Andy, that's on a spiritual level, man. Everybody can tap into that, man. And when you.

And they do from time to time. Yeah. It's magical. It's not magical. No. You can do it. You can tap into that, man. And that's the thing that we have to realize.

Like, man, there's not a lot we can control, but the things we control, the promises we make to ourselves, we keep those things. And look, this is something I tell people all the time. The hardest prison to do time in is the prison in your mind. I meet more people out here in the free world, Andy, that are locked up than I ever did when I served time in a real maximum security level

five prison. More people are in prison by their thoughts and by their things than by steel bars and barbed wire and concrete combined. You can't become a prisoner of mine it's the hardest prison to walk out of but the the the good thing is is that you have the keys yeah you have the keys to free yourself at any time but it it's it's what you're talking everything you've said is spot on and it's incremental small changes that you make small problems you keep to yourself and the things you can control work on those yep love it man i want to say something on that last question sorry to interrupt you that's going i want you to understand something you are dragging yourself out of a fucking hole okay it's not going to happen in

one week this is like an inch by inch by inch crawl and eventually that crawl becomes a walk and eventually that walk becomes a jog and eventually that walk becomes a jog and eventually that jog becomes a sprint and that's where you're trying to get to so understand and in the beginning you're crawling and not only are you crawling you're dragging all this shit with you too okay so it takes time to build this just be ready for it that's all i want to say i love that yeah yeah guys andy damon our third and final question. Question number three. Andy, my wife and I have been running our business for nine years now. The last couple of years, we've made lots of money, then also lost a lot, made a ton back and then lost some again. We invest a lot of money back into our businesses. So by all accounts, it makes sense why the money fluctuates. We are a long game type of people. So we genuinely believe we'll pay off. And this is just part of the process.

We've both come to peace about this being a 10 to 15 year game until we really start seeing our fruits of our labor. Can you give us some insight into why the money fluctuate like it does in business and some pointers on how we should be thinking during this phase of our business. Well, first of all, it's not a 10 to 15 year game. It's a life game. Okay, so you need to be thinking longer term, not just 10 years, 15 years. All right.

As far as fruits. I'm going to tell you how this is going to work. Here's how it's going to work. You're you now and you're making X and you're going to make X plus. All right. And then you're you now, and you're making X and you're going to make X plus. All right. And then you're going to, and you're telling yourself right now, when I make X plus I'm fucking out. Okay. But here's, what's going to happen. You're going to figure out how to make X plus. And then you're going to say, well, fuck, that wasn't that hard. I want to make

X plus plus. And then you're going to make X plus plus. And then you're going to make, then you're going to say, you know what? We did that. We could do X plus plus plus. Right. And you're going to make X plus plus. And then you're going to make, then you're going to say, you know what? We did that. We could do X plus plus plus, right? And you're going to start continuing to move down the road. This is what, this is what everybody does. Because when your skillset expands through the journey of owning a business or running a business entrepreneurship, every lesson you learn gives you a new skill. All right.

So where you are now compared to where you're going to be 10 years from now, where you think you're going to be done, you're not going to be done because your skill set has now expanded so broad that you see infinite possibilities for your progress. And so when you have the ability to do amazing things and you know you do because you have the skills, how many people have the discipline just to quit? They don't. Okay. So it's always going to do amazing things. And you know you do because you have the skills. How many people have the discipline just to quit? They don't. Okay. So it's always going to be this way.

It's a lifelong journey. That's the first thing to understand. The second thing to understand is that you are playing a volatile game. It's a hard game to play. And the goal of the game is not to accumulate money. It's actually just to survive. All right. So that you can have a company

that pays your bills and takes care of you and provides a lifestyle for the rest of your life. And a lot of people think of it like, I want to get this big lump of some money and then I'll be done. But that's not how the fuck it's going to work because guess what? You'll spend it, you'll lose it, you'll make bad investments and you won't have shit and you'll be sitting on a fucking couch in your mom's basement. That's what will happen. So you have to think about this long-term. You have to understand that you're going to be a different person five years from now than you are today. 10 years from now, you're going to be double that person. All right. And you have to understand that the environment of business is always fluid and it's always changing. And there are going to be things

that like we like to think as entrepreneurs, you know, what I call entrepreneur math, right? You break out an Excel spreadsheet. You say, I want to make $10 million. That means I got to sell a thousand widgets per hour and they got to be priced this and all, and all I got to do is these things. And you think of it like this, it's this smooth lineup. Like all I got to do is this, but the reality is there's going to be things that fucking happen. Okay. In my business, like when I started my first retail store in 1999 and two weeks later, we got our store broken into and vandalized. I wasn't counting on that. That fucking sucked. By the way, it took us six weeks to get the insurance payment. So like in that meantime,

I didn't have any product to fucking sell. Yeah. That wasn't in the Excel sheet. That wasn't there. Okay. And the only reason that I was able to survive that period of time is because we paid the landlord upfront for the full year of rent. Otherwise we would have had to close the business. So what I thought was an injustice and, uh, and, uh, us getting treated poorly because we were only 19 years old actually kept us in business and we survived that. But then there was these other things. I got stabbed in the face, fucking, um, you know, we have people quit like, dude, you're going to go through all the, the market's going to change. The products are going to change. There's going to be new laws. There's going to

be regulations. There's going to be all kinds of things, bro. You're going to get married. You're going to get divorced. You're going to have kids. Your fucking kids are going to do stupid shit. Like dude, wife is not a predictable game. Like, so to think that business is going to be predictable when it depends on actual other human beings to buy your shit is not even reality because all of those people are dealing with their own shit. And guess what? They don't're not buying your shit right now. Okay. So like there's all these moving parts and we have to, we have to change our expectation around entrepreneurship. And once you change the expectation, the reality becomes easier to deal with because what the expectation is, is I'm going to get a product. I'm going to run some ads. People are going to buy it. I'm going to be rich. I'm going to be drinking a beer in the Corona commercial on the beach in Mexico forever. All right. That's the expectation. I've arrived. That's not how it works, guys. No. Like it is up and down. It's

left and right. It's holy fuck. It's this is awesome. And that can go by the hour like it can go by the hour for decades. OK. So change the expectation, expect that this is a volatile career path in a volatile world that changes at the speed of light. All of that's going to affect sales. That's going to make, sometimes you're going to have sales go. There's going to be things like brand cycle, like most brand cycles where 20, 40 years ago, brands could last with the same brand for decades. They can't do that anymore because the news cycle and the attention cycle is so fast that you have to reinvent yourself. You have to reinvent your branding. You have to reinvent your product.

You have to improve. There's so many fucking moving pieces to this to expect that it's going to be a diagonal line towards the place you want to go, but just straight up is, is, is an absurd expectation. Let me ask you this about this though, because like, I'm, this guy asked you, I'm learning from you right now because you're, you're further down the road than me. You're where I'm, I'm working to get that road. What I've learned from guys like you guys, like Ed is like, keep the main thing, the main thing in an entrepreneur journey like my main thing for my me is uh the big thing is i'm a speaker that brings in you know make millions of dollars speaking right but i've been able to keep that the main thing

focus most of my attention there but i've i've divested into different businesses that i've started like you're doing you're talking about you have all these other that's why i was like man i don't know how you do it you told me how many you got going on. We started a business for my wife. My wife has their own demolition and construction company. Her and my mother-in-law, it's a female owned demolition company called, it's called Divas of Destruction. So, but their struggle in the first couple of years

of this is real, man. You're watching a business struggle and we put resources to that, but she has to keep that focus on her thing, the main thing. And you're two of this thing, man. So they're not making any money right now. No one's bringing home a salary or anything like that, but it's the same thing. It seems to me that you've, if you keep the main thing, the main thing, then you've got a chance, you know, but when do you know, Andy, when to break off and to try something else and focus a little bit of

your attention into another business. When do you know that? Well, I think there's nuance there. There's no set number to where it's like people want a number. Is it a feeling you get? How much am I making? Yeah. I think the correct assessment for when you're, because like, dude, a lot of these younger entrepreneurs do get fucked up because of the fucking meme that goes around.

We all know what the meme says. Average millionaire has seven streams of income. Oh my God. And fucking that meme gets shared by all these fucking idiots who don't even own shit. Okay. That might be true for someone who's been in business for 25 years. That should not be the case when you're starting. What you're saying is absolutely true. If you're pulling a wagon and you only got one fucking horse, are you going to tie up all the ponies and ride the pony? No, you're going to tie it to the big motherfucking horse that's going to pull the load. That's your main gig. Okay. Your, your goal is to get so good at this one thing

that it generates excess cashflow that is way above and beyond what you ever wanted for yourself. And then you take that and you reinvest it in projects as they appear. And most of the projects that are going to come about are usually going to have to do with slight variations of what you already do, where there's a base level of product knowledge. And then there's opportunities that come along that allow you to vertically integrate sort of. So you're not just starting from scratch every time. Correct. Like for me, it's consumer packaged goods i know how to sell cpg brands i know how to sell cbg products so i'm in fucking supplements right now i have my supplement business is completely vertically integrated meaning we own things all the way from the farms all the way down to the fucking retail stores the

shit's sold in all right then we go to cannabis then we go to cannabis. Then we go to tequila. Then we go to this because all of the principles of how to operate those things are the fucking same. And some of your customer base taps into all of those. For sure.

But dude, like this, you have to say, okay, this is my main thing. This is what generates the main amount of revenue. I'm going to get so good at this

that I can then branch off into these things that I have a really, like a pretty good understanding about, but it's not the exact thing I did. Correct. Okay. After you kind of vertically integrated and squeezed all the juice out of your main thing. Right. And I think most people don't put enough into their main thing to ever get it to that point. Like for us, we had our retail supplement stores, right? That's how we started. Most people think First Form was the first company. First Form was actually the second company that we started. We had retail stores first

because that was the lowest barrier to entry because it took the least amount of money, all right? So we ran that play for eight years, nine years before we ever came into a situation with First Form, right? Then we used our experience for what we learned in the stores from an up-close view at how brands operated. And because we didn't know how to do it, right? Correct.

We didn't have what they have now. Like you didn't have motherfuckers like me teaching you shit on the internet or people that you could learn from. Like that's not what happened. You learn from mistakes and trial and error. Yeah. And you observed and then you guessed. Yeah.

And so we kind of got a good view of what product brands that sold to us at our retail store, how they operated. Right. And we were able to kind of nitpick them apart because we were, you know, we were coaching from the sidelines. Right. So we would say over the years, we were like, well, they should do this. They should do that. They should do this because we had an upfront understanding of the customer base. So we took what we knew and what we became decent at, and then we slightly varied it over here. Then we became really good at that. Then that became the main thing, all right? And then we started taking the money from that and doing things that were sort of similar. Well, no, I actually forgot a step. In that first form form thing then we started working towards owning some of our manufacturing and owning the distribution

process all the way from top to bottom okay that's called vertical integration right that's that's a big value driver if you're building a brand that will eventually uh potentially attract investors or strategic partnerships or and potentially be sold you have to have the integration because the more that you own, the more that you're worth. And, but basically you take what you know, you go over here when it's appropriate, okay? And a lot of people think it's appropriate because they think that they got to have seven things

to be credible on the internet. Bro, you know what I think when I see that people say that shit and they're not like, I don't know them because like in reality, like I know pretty much all the big entrepreneurs or i know someone that knows them yeah and they're just on the internet and they're 25 years old and they say oh i got this i got that i got this i got that you know what i think you're full of correct and you will never get a meeting with me you will never get on my show you will never get close to me because i know you're

full of all right because you don't know all of those things. And a lot of kids are trying to fast track their way into that, into that place when the sales don't really justify it at all. And I would argue heavily and strongly to never do that because eventually that will bankrupt you because what you're doing is you're spreading all of this shit. It's the, it's the Jack of all trades, master of none. I know. I know, man. You see it all the time on the internet too, man.

It's crazy. Yeah, and it's because this fucking toxic entrepreneur culture that doesn't really know what the fuck they're talking about, who've never really built anything, giving these kids bad advice, bro. They're telling them, oh, you know, like I said, millionaires have seven streams of income. Like, fuck, dude.

Like, you're telling these kids to go out and start just fucking a bunch of shit because that's what they do. They take the shit literally. And then they don't have any capital to fucking put into any of them. They never get good at any of them. They waste 10 years of their life and then they got to close all the shit and start to fuck over. Right.

And this is what happens. And then, you know, it's just like diet culture. You know, when they used to sell people, you know, eight minute abs, like you can get in shape in one week and shit. Here's what happens. And then, and you know, it's just like diet culture, you know, when they used to sell people, um, you know, eight minute abs, like you can get in shape in one week and shit. Here's what happened. People would fucking buy these products and they would never get results. And you know what they ultimately did? They blame themselves. They said, there's something wrong with me. Why does this work for everybody else? It doesn't work for everybody else. They're lying. So then they start to question themselves and this happens in the, then they give up and then they just say, I'm fucking fat and it is what it is. And they quit.

This happens in entrepreneurial space. When you think about how damaging that is to someone's life who you, you, you tell them the wrong information, they go out and do it to try and present to be a certain way on the internet. And then they get to be 30 and they have to close all the shit. They're embarrassed. They ruined their reputation. They've lost all their money their money they feel like a failure bro and then they fucking believe there's something wrong with them no you're listening to the wrong people yep and so so like dude become what you i'm all of this to say yes you are correct i love it focus on your main thing become fucking great at it when it starts making so much money that you can go buy lamborghinis and porsches and shit

and it doesn't fucking matter and you don't give a fuck, it's like buying jeans, then fucking do your next thing. Right. Love it. Yeah. Guys, Andy Damon, man, that's been three. Yeah, bro. That was incredible.

This is awesome, man. This is cool. I'm glad you were able to come through. Yeah, man. I learned a lot, man. Can I come back to St. Louis and do this again? Dude, yes. Absolutely.

That was fucking amazing. I had a great time. And guys, where can they follow you at, bro? Instagram, Twitter, and now the new one, the threads you were talking about. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because you can't erase it from your phone. Yeah. I just got it, took the link out of my bio, and I just wanted my name to sit on it.

It's at DamonWest7, D-A-M-O-N-W-E-S-T-7 for my social media follows. And again, people find me for speaking engagements all over the world at DamonWest.org. D-A-M-O-N-W-E-S-T.org. Cool. Yeah, man. Thanks, Andy. Thanks, bro. DJ, thanks a lot.

Thanks for everything you're doing, too, man. Dude, and your people are incredible, man. That Glocker that I had set up when I walked in here today. Yeah. Dude, I sent a picture up to my wife. I was like, man, look at these. They're amazing. It's incredible. You have great people around you. I'm very blessed to be here. You build something great around these people. No, dude, I'm blessed to be around

these people. They make me better. This is awesome today, guys. It's fun. Thank you, brother. Yeah, thanks a lot. All right, guys. Don't be a hoe. Share the show. flow now my jewelry box froze fuck a bowl fuck a stove counted millions in a cold bad bitch booted swole got her on bankroll can't fold that's a no headshot case closed