The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – SNIFF (The SNIFF, SMOKE, SHOOT Series Book 1) by GC Brown

Episode Date: October 7, 2024

SNIFF (The SNIFF, SMOKE, SHOOT Series Book 1) by GC Brown Amazon.com GCbrownbooks.com WARNING: This content may be difficult to digest. There’s a lot of drug use and abuse, overtly sexual situations, some racist shit, sexual and gender slurs, and hookers galore. Oh, and there’s graphic violence and more hookers. On the flip side, there’s no violence to animals—unless you count a few giraffes on leashes. Anyway, if what you’re after is some vanilla, politically correct fluff—if you’re woke or even woke adjacent—this ain’t the place for you. If, however, laugh-out-loud escapism is your bag, I’m your guy. The Party Came to A Screeching Halt When I Ended Up in Prison Back in ’07, I found myself in hot water over what the good ol’ U.S. of A. so eloquently referred to as “financial shenanigans.” And they did whatever it took to convince a jury that I was their Madoff. I’ve certainly done my fair share of questionable things in life, but I was not the villain in their particular saga. Still…. The universe has a peculiar way of balancing the scales. The boredom in prison was excruciating. So I went to see my case manager, wondering what spectacular moneymaking opportunities might be available. The guy told me, get this, “Well, according to policy, the only thing you really can do is a write book.” He even had the audacity to laugh when he said it. The hell I know about writing? A few months later and blah-blah-solitary confinement-blah, and I thought, Fuck it, let’s write a book. And that’s where SNIFF began—an action-adventure story about antihero David Liecht, who worked his way to the top of the commercial real estate world, only to lose everything while finding love…and then teeter on the brink of losing that too. Now what will David do? I believe words can be used to create conflict or inspire change; they can cut deep or make you laugh. I choose to laugh, and some people think I’m a damn riot. But I don’t expect everyone to be a fan. This is art, baby, and I’m not here to follow the rules. I love writing. It’s a passion I discovered while in federal prison. And maybe I ruffle a few feathers along the way, and maybe I don’t. Truthfully, I hope you stick around. Let’s see what kind of shit we can get into.About the author Because the world was missing a mobile home mogul, Brown became the GM of a manufactured housing retail empire in Dallas, Texas, with greatness in mind as his entrepreneurial spirit couldn't be contained. And he made a killing (literally, maybe) in that niche and then branched out to other various ventures. Buying and selling mobile homes (because who doesn't love a good trailer?); led to flipping houses (before it was en vogue); developing real estate (for the sake of humanity); running nightclubs (where the real magic happens); coding software (because who needs experience?); selling flowers online (the ultimate hustle); serving sushi (raw fish and entrepreneurship go hand-in-hand); and, the pièce de résistance—the African diamond trade (because nothing screams "legit business" like blood diamonds). Shockingly, Brown's financial wizardry didn't quite extend to his tax returns (integrity is overrated). Uncle Sam slapped him with tax evasion, failure to file taxes on time, and wire fraud (just a few minor oversights). When offered a plea deal, Brown, ever the thick-headed rebel, refused to admit defeat (because he'd done nothing wrong in his mind). More charges followed, and, spoiler alert, he blew the trial. And well, let's just say he's now an expert on the federal prison system. “All that glitters ain't gold, folks.” Inspired by a newspaper article that claimed writing a book was the third hardest thing to do (presumably, after escaping from prison and getting a decent haircut behind bars), Brown, the ultimate thrill seeker, decided to take on that ultimate challenge. He was going to pen a novel while serving his sentence (because, why not?).

You wanted the best. You've got the best podcast. The hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show. The preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. The CEOs, authors, thought leaders, visionaries, and motivators. Get ready. Get ready. Strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms, and legs inside the vehicle at all times. Because you're about to go on a monster education roller coaster with your brain. Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. Hi, this is Voss here from thechrisvossshow.com. The Chris Voss Show.

The Voss Show. Ladies and gentlemen, the earliest things in that mix are official. Welcome to the big show. As always, the Chris Voss Show is a family that loves you but doesn't judge you. At least not as harshly as most of the people walking around your office who are giving you that side eye, that sneery sort of look. And they don't like you anyway. But you know what?

Just carry on. Keep doing what you're doing. Keep listening to the Chris Voss Show. You're going to be smarter than and better than them. And eventually you'll make more money if you don't already. So that's not a guarantee. My attorneys say I can't say that but i just did we have an amazing author on the show when do we not have amazing authors on the show pretty much never so today we have c gc brown his newest book is out on the show we're gonna be talking to him

about it comes out november 1st 2024 are we in november what i'm not ready i'm still in january anyway his book is entitled sniff the sniff smoke shoot series book one so that is becoming out on november 1 i just had covet for two weeks i'm very familiar with the contents of his book wait this might be something different anyway we'll get into it welcome to the show show, GC. How are you? Thank you. Pleased to be here. I'm great. How are you? Thank you.

And you've got an amazing story. We're going to get into some of your history and some of the things you were doing in your life and all that good stuff. So give us a 30,000 overview of what's inside your new book. It's about a guy that was on top of the world in finance. It's fiction. A guy on top of the world making six, eight million dollars a year doing the finance thing all across

Europe, all across the Middle East. Some stuff here in Boca Raton, Florida. At the end of the day, everything's great. He's married to the woman of his dreams. He's got the kid. He's got the chateau in Switzerland. Everything is great. Markets crash. His wife is

pronounced with a terminal disease. Oh, no. Everything. His world comes crashing down. He ends up addicted to heroin. Trying to save his work around the clock. He starts to speed. Ends up with heroin.

Ends up with the addiction. Starts robbing banks in the U.S. to support his wife's cancer treatment. Oh, no. Wow. That's one way to do it. So he treatment. Oh, no. Wow. That's one way to do it. So he goes through all this stuff. So Sniff is referring, this title refers to, what did you say he was doing, Beth?

He started off, he dibbled and dabbled throughout his whole life in some of the, you know, he was in that world with fast pace, fast cars, fast women, the whole thing. And so he dibbled we pull the devil his whole life and in the end the heroin got him that's what i always tell the police when they pull me over i'm just doing a little dibble dabbling i'm gonna make a good title for a book in you know and then it's like joe montana or montana, what's his face? The Scarface. Dibble Dabbling.

Scarface and Dibble Dabbling. Yeah, that wasn't Joe. Who has the name of Montana? Tony Montana. Tony Montana. Tony Montana. Tony Montana. Hey. From Cuba.

Cuba. Cuba. Anyway, tell us a little bit about yourself. I think we got your dot com at the beginning of the show, right? Because I have COVID brain. Did we get that? The dot com? Yeah.

GCBrownBooks.com? It's got it now. All right. Just give it a double plug, you know, because it's always important people go to your website. GCBrownBooks.com. So tell us a little bit about your history. I was going to read your bio, but I think it's going to sound really interesting from you. Tell us about how you grew up, when you just get interested in writing,

and what sort of adventures kind of laid the foundation for the content maybe that you put in your books. Okay. So I grew up on a small farm in northwest Indiana. Moved to a high school with 300 people, 300, 400 people. One stoplight, super small town, moved to Arizona on a family move when I was 16, finished a couple of years of school out there, 5,000 students in the school, Mesa High School for my junior year, graduated, had some baseball scholarships, habit in the blood, grandfather played professional baseball, uncle played professional baseball. I was kind of burned out on it. I did a little bit of everything.

Started off selling Kirby vacuum cleaners. It ended up turning into nightclubs and sandwich shops and detail shops and on to Africa diamond trade. Oh, wow. A bunch of real estate between Florida, Hawaii, a couple of software companies, restaurant chain. I did it all. Ultimately, I was pretty good at the business stuff, terrible at the taxes. A young kid in my 30s making more money than I probably ever should have

in a city with way too many things to do. Way too many vices to do? Is that what things mean? No, not too many vices. Yeah, I guess it would be vices, but not the drugs. Oh, okay. You do all that here in Vegas. Yeah, they do it in Miami too.

Oh, that's true. Yeah, there's a bit going on there. I've heard it before. I ended up miscalculating some stuff with as far as the feds they moved in and accused me of something i absolutely did not do offered me a three-year plea said that i was they originally investigated me saying i was bringing blood diamonds in the united states and i absolutely was not oh wow two years yeah two years after investigating me they came up with nothing went back to their supervisors charged me of, for all intents and purposes, BS tax offenses that I absolutely was not guilty of, chose not to take the plea of a few years, took them to trial.

They slapped me with 20 years. Holy shit, dude. Yeah. So for fighting them and executing my or exercising my constitutional rights, they penalized me. And I did 16 years in prison. While I was there, you've heard some of the stuff that I've done. So I get to prison. There's none of that to do.

It's stare at some walls and watch TV. There's literally nothing to do. Fast forward, I go to my case managers and say, hey, listen, I'm used to doing things. I need to make money. I need to do something. What can I do? He kind of scoffed and said, you could write a book. Yeah.

What I know about writing a book. You don't need time to do it. Yeah, I don't need time to do it. I knew nothing about writing a book. I walked out of the office, obviously a little discouraged. I knew nothing about writing. Fast forward, I ended up in the hole for 15 months for sitting in the wrong seat. That's what it fell down to. And I didn't take the command to move probably as well as I should have.

And it turned into a 15 months in the hole. But while I'm there, I was fighting my appeals. I get a legal call. My attorney says, what are you doing in there? All I do is read. There's nothing else to do. All I do is read. You should write a book. Again, the second time, what do I know about writing a book? Fast forward a couple of months go by and the USA Today newspaper, somebody got and slid it underneath my door. We it it's obviously solitary confinement six by nine bots steel door never opens uh but you're past mail and you know that

kind of stuff so front page of the usa today top 10 hardest things to do number three write in a novel i said that's that's three times that's that's it took. So I immediately picked up a pen and 120 pages in, said this is what I'm doing for the rest of my life. I said I will end up at the top of this bestseller list. And it's been an upward climb since. And I believe Sniff is that book. I mean, you have a lot of entrepreneurial skills, from what I understand. You know, according to the feds some are legal some are not I'm

kidding and I don't think they call them skills at all as a matter of fact I should say allegedly of course I don't know anyway and you know maybe you should write a book on how to be an entrepreneur and of course how to avoid jail that might be how to avoid the getting on the bad list of the feds I know that when they usually have their thing you're also working on a new partnership too as well that's launching i think at the same time as the book and this is an entrepreneur venture as well tell us about that while i'm inside amongst doing i set three goals one two i wasn't doing what the government said i was doing could i have been better at taxes i mean who couldn't making that kind of money as a kid? There were some other things that I was doing that I wasn't doing

correctly. Immoral stuff, wasn't married, had a couple of kids, just doing the crazy kid stuff. No drugs, that kind of stuff. But I decided that I was going to stop all the BS. I've managed to do a lot of things in my life and I've always managed to end up near the top of those things. But somehow

one way or the other, I'd screw it up. I'd start to hanging out. I'd start to chasing the women. And, oh, I like that car. Oh, let's buy a house in here. Yeah, so I decided that I was going to not only write and become a New York Times bestselling author, I decided I was going to become the best human being that I could possibly be.

Good for you. I set out 10 years ago, just I've changed my life. 51 years I ducked marriage. Obviously 16 years of that I was in prison but I said I would never be married. I would never do a lot of the things that I am currently doing right now and my life is completely 180

degrees different than what it was and I cannot be happier. And you're married. And I'm married. I'm married with a brand new twin identical boys. Oh, congratulations. Seven weeks old tomorrow, Friday, tomorrow. And how old are you now?

I'm 51. Oh, boy. That's a lot of work. That's a lot. Those young ones for the, I remember my friend had twins at 30, I think it was 35, 33, something. And I remember he came to me with this vacant look in his eyes. I'd visited him for a week and he was holding up one of those diaper condoms. Have you seen those?

The big tubes? Yes. He goes, this is one day of diapers. And he's like holding it in the air because it's so long. It amazes me how many diapers. I think it was one of my Magnum xls that he was holding up but he filled it with diapers and so i was like looking at he goes chris this is one fucking day he goes the one the one the twins will be asleep the one starts crying it wakes the other one up

then that one's crying and then the other one one. And he goes, you know, I understand why people have kids at 20. I freaking fully understand it right now. At 30, I do not have the energy for this shit. Yeah. And he had this vacant look in his eyes. You know that when people tell you something, you're like, they ain't fucking kidding around. Yeah. So, congratulations.

There's a three-year-old and a six-year-old. We have a three-year-old and a six-year-old. Do we? Oh, man. Congratulations, man. Good for you you i'll have whatever you're drinking the coffee cup coffee yeah we were just getting ready to talk about that while i was in while i was inside i said the book thing i'm gonna get to the top of that list i'm gonna do change my life and be the best human being i could possibly be and i'm gonna come out with at that time i originally wanted to come out with a rum or a vodka because, hey, everybody's doing it. I figured move to the Caribbean, let's do that. That slowly changed or evolved into a health

shake. Now, when I hit the street, I've always been pretty healthy my whole life, actually. It's been a big part of my lifestyle which is why there's no drugs and alcohol to speak of anyway the that turned into the health shake turned into coming home planning on that and in 16 years the health industry or the health shake fat loss all those kinds of just went the zonkers and it's a millions of dollars to get into it correctly, tons of time. And I had neither one. So that's what turned into, I was taking all these different supplements in the morning, lion's mane and Moringa powder and Shilajit and NAD and stand on one leg and take this and hold your arm out and take everything.

All of it tasted terrible, and I was mixing it into my coffee. It's the only way that you could do some of that stuff. Like the Lion's Mane and the Shilajit, you take the Shilajit at 6 o'clock in the morning, you're still burping it up at dinnertime. Just a terrible, but a phenomenal 4,000 years it's been around. Phenomenal. I take the tar kind.

Yeah, that's the one I was taking. So it was and I was just putting it on my tongue. I eventually just started dissolving it into my morning coffee, which still tasted terrible. Still, if you've had the Shilajit tar, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

I just straight shoot it. I lost feeling in my tongue in Vietnam. I'm not even going to ask that story. I was in Nam. I killed, I think, a lot of Vietnamese during my tour of duty there. I think it was about 20 or so. Yeah, I was there last week on vacation.

Stole that joke from a movie People always do it I love the setup of that I'll be like yeah I can't feel anything out of a plate in my head From Nam people are like really You're a Nam Yeah So you got this new Upkeep

Upcup coffee with a K. Up cup with a K. Yeah. We added the, we managed to take it to a chemist, a coffee expert first, who turned us on to a team of chemists. We managed to take, now most of this mushroom coffee, it tastes like dirt. Everybody knows that. Anybody that's tried it, it's just, it's terrible. It's like licking the back of a wet tree like dirt. Everybody knows that. Anybody that's tried it, it's terrible. It's like licking the back of a wet tree in dirt.

We managed to take the Shilajit, the NAD Plus with the anti-aging, and the Lion's Mane and put it into a brewed cup of coffee with some chemist. And, Chris, I'm not kidding you. It is a great tasting. People have tried it. You'll try it. We'll get you a bag. It's absolutely unbelievable taste. It's got the lion's mane, and it's got the shit.

It's got the NAD Plus in it. It's just a – and we come out. We hit the digital shelves on Black Friday. Oh, that's a perfect time. Nationwide. We've signed the contracts. It'll be nationwide on retailer shelves in the first quarter of 25, beginning of second quarter.

So you should do an entrepreneur book on how to be an entrepreneur. I mean, you were just gracious. I have only been out. I have a trip to the whole thing. There's a couple of books coming out. They're talking about movies, the whole deal. I got twins, married, coffee company.

I've been home 10 months. I love what you're drinking. Maybe there's something else. I don't know. Rounding back to the book and stuff, with the book, this is going to be a series coming out. That's the future of what you got going on here. How many books are in the series? Is there a plan on a cap, or is it just open, wide open?

Three. I'm going to do three for the sniff. Sniff, smoke, shoot. First one, obviously, out in November. Second one out midway through next year. And then the last one either end of next year, depending on publisher, or beginning the following year. But in the meantime, I also wrote the one book that I wrote. The book that I wrote first was part of the Detective series, which you see up here in the Law of the Mason Storm series.

That's the first book I wrote when I first decided that i was going to do this i ended up winning an award i won the benjamin franklin award on it placed first in it and then the very next day i tore the entire book apart sentence by sentence and turned it into a series i had a bunch of time we turned turned it into, or I turned it into the Mason Storm series. Book one, Taken by Storm, is out March 1st. So I'm actually doing two series at the same time. Oh, wow. Well, you got your work cut out for you,

but we have a lot of authors that come on the show for, you know, they have like multiple series and multiple threads that go down. Sometimes they cross them and stuff. And, you know, we've had all the Jack Ryan folks Jack Ryan jr. and wow we have a little Tom Clancy people on except for Tom Clancy for some reason he won't come on the show I'm not sure why but maybe. Maybe we should get an AI version on him on the show. I'm sure it's out there.

But we've had all the authors on, and it's just amazing. And, of course, a lot of the authors that write for him, they have their own series too. It's just crazy what they have set up. So this is exciting. And do you want to tease us out of the other series that you have coming up? Give us a little. Yeah, sure.

It comes out March 1st of next year it's the main character is mason storm he is a retired mma championship belt holder winner gets bored later in life gets hurt midway through his career gets hurt decides he wants to be a detective that turns into a homicide detective set in South Florida. The publisher and some of the people that have read it are saying it's the brand new Miami Vice.

Same kind of cool character. You know, the Miami style, but set in West Palm Beach, which is about 40 minutes north of Miami. Which is where I used to live before this. Obviously, I told you that.

Yeah. So I'm pretty familiar with the city. So that's the first thing I wrote. And it's just a book one. He's solving serial killer. He's got a past that's following him around. He's gone through a divorce, a family tragedy, and he overcomes. And book one is out March 1st. it should be exciting to see it and uh

and yeah all the stuff you got going how do you juggle all these things i mean you're doing a lot are you just is it is it the mushroom it's coffee not that kind of mushroom i just want to know the key to this i need some whatever so i told you in the beginning i was raised on a farm a small farm if you didn't some. Whatever. So I told you in the beginning, I was raised on a farm, a small farm. If you didn't get chores done, you didn't get plants in the ground, you didn't get. So I developed a good work ethic from four years old up. And I just, the reason I went to prison, Chris, and I don't say this often, is I lost track of the small stuff. I've been great at all the small stuff my entire life, which has got,

got me to the bigger stuff. So fast forward, I get there to Miami and I start making several million dollars a year in my third, 31, 32. So I'm driving all the cars I'm doing. I got too big for my bridges.

So I started not paying attention to the small stuff. And the small stuff ultimately what got me, I signed stuff that I didn't know I was signing. I just didn't. People putting mortgage brokers, just putting conditions in my files that I never even knew that were there. I just, I let myself, my life be controlled by other people. Now I don't do that. So I micromanage everything that's around me everybody not may not appreciate that but they appreciate me being here so they'd rather

do that than deal with me ending up where i just came from so i i get up early i start my day 4 4 30 every day if you've got an email on my that comes in the middle of the night to me it's returned by 4 35 o'clock in the morning. I probably overwork more than I should, especially with the twins. I enjoy work, though. I operate best in the chaos. I can't do the 9 to 5. I've never been able to do the 9 to 5.

You and me. I enjoy working 24-7. I don't really work 24-7, but you're in business and an entrepreneur, you think about it 24-7. But I love kind of the freedom. You know, if I want to go muck around, take the dog for a walk or, I don't know, chase girls around town, I can go do that and then later do my work. You know, I don't have to do that now. And I really like that. It gives you a lot of freedom, gives you a lot of, you know,

as long as you still get the work done. Yeah. Yeah. 18 years of being an entrepreneur, I can never go or for anybody else. And they wouldn't have me anyway. So they'd be at my resume. It would just be like, have you ever worked for anyone ever? Do you get along with authority?

How do you deal with authority? You question too much. Do you deal with authority? Do you question it much? Do you work with others? No. I want to punch most people in the face. Is that legal here? I just want to know.

I don't care about the vacation days, but can I punch people in the face if they get out of hand? I just want to know that. I can't do that. Can I at least kick them in the shins or hit them in the chair in the shins? That's not really what I want to do. So as we go out, any final thoughts, anything we missed that we should talk about that you've done on the book or doing on the book? No, outside of I've got some great people behind me. I've got a great team. I've got the Ken Atchity and Storybook Merchant.

Lisa Sarazoli are putting it out there. I got a seven-book contract with them. You're all coming. Yeah, I walked out to a – it's hard to get a publishing deal to begin with. I walked out with a seven-book. Yeah. I was still actually – the funny – I was still on an ankle monitor. I was still on an ankle monitor when I signed the seven-book publishing deal.

I think they knew you weren't going anywhere. Yes. He's not going anywhere. He's an ankle monitor. We can trust him. He'll be fine. I couldn't leave the driveway. It's funny.

I used to have – I stayed there with my brother in Arizona. You know, you have to be released to somebody. So I stayed with my brother in Arizona, and had a little, he has, still has, Luca, a little two-year-old. I used to take him out for walks, but I could only walk to the end of the driveway, make a left at the end of the house, go back to the right side and go to the end of my

cutoff on that side or the ankle mount that would go off. Well, you know, he's going to have to stay home and type some shit because he ain't going nowhere. That's right. We know where he's at. Plus, we can always check with his parole agent if he gets out.

Oh, yeah. There, listen. She's actually, funny story, she just left here. Oh, really? Yeah, I thought she was going to pop in. I got a text this morning, hey, stop and buy. You can't do it at noon. I mean, I got something to do at noon.

Yeah, she just left here but honestly she's been a we didn't start off where we are now uh the whole authority thing that you and i probably struggle with so i didn't we didn't start off well but we are in a great place now she's actually she's on my side i had to get permission to write to put the books out the whole really you would shake your head at some of the stuff that this government pulls it's it's actually unbelievable you don't want your money or once you pay yeah or whatever the hell yeah yeah it's unbelievable yeah it's it's a funny business that whole thing you think they'd you know what was it they did with oh who's that pot smoking country singer they have actually yeah willie nelson the rs was like you owe us money and there's i'll just give

an i'll make an album just give it to you they're like okay that's fine with us yeah they the problem of course is the statute says something different than what they actually prosecute for the statute says you have to willfully evade willfully not pay that was not the that was that's why i bought them that was actually not willfully. I had 10 years, at that time I had 10 years of checks back and forth to the accountants.

I had the same firm out of Coral Gables for 10 years. There was, I wasn't willful. I just didn't, I could have been a little better and I should have paid on time.

But that's not what the statute says. The statute says willfully evade. That was not the case. Wow. So now you're on the right track. You're doing the right things. You're a family man. You're living your life morally adjusted.

I don't know what the right word is. Yeah, that's it. Let me adjust it. I don't know what the right word is because I'm not morally adjusted, but you are. So thegivestory.com is one more last time as we go out. Encourage people to pick up the book wherever fine books are sold yeah the it's going to be available everywhere the website is gc for gregory claude brown gc brown.com all the socials are there it's gc brown either books or gc brown all across they have me everywhere everybody's probably tired of tired of

seeing they put videos out they put movie trailers out they've got book trailers they got it's just incredible what they what they've done over there at the the high virtual agency and lane group the pr it's just unbelievable they have me everywhere i'm on lucky enough to be on your show the folks should do it's a good read i encourage everybody to pick it up. Thank you very much for coming to the show. We really appreciate it. Yeah, it was great. And folks, pick it up wherever fine books are sold. It'll be available November 1st, 2024 in all formats. G.C.

Brown has got his new book out. You're going to want to get a read on it because he's got the rest of the series coming down the pike here. It is called Sniff! The Sniff, Smoke, Shoot! Series Book 1. You want to get it so you can be on top of all the future books thanks to us for tuning in go to goodreads.com for chest christmas linkedin.com for chest christmas christmas one the tiktokity and all those crazy places on the internet

thanks for tuning in be good to each other stay safe we'll see you next time and there we