Kind: captions
Language: en
growing up in the ghetto i always had to
get approval to live the proof of the
thing the proof were to be accepted that
[ __ ] don't mean nothing to me
i just i just feel so good
like i think i'm in my i think i'm at my
best
my the best feeling possible but i'm
able to feel something and be able to
react with my emotions and and to be
able to embrace what i'm feeling and to
be able to cry i love crying on the
aspect of life it just feel good because
i'm letting something out and i used to
remember when i used to be filling a
certain way and i couldn't let it out
because of the environment that said
that wasn't cool or it would be soft
[Music]
hey everybody welcome to another episode
of impact theory i am here with somebody
that is going to make your brains leak
out of your ears this guy is
extraordinary he is the one the only
wallow267 wallah welcome to the show my
man thank you for having me tom dude it
is so good to have you i am
obsessed with people that have a no bs
no excuse mentality i read your book
which we have here the mind of wallow267
for people that don't know your story
you spent 20 years in prison which seems
impossible every time i heard it i
thought okay he got a 20-year sentence
but there's no way he actually did 20
years but you actually did 20 years i
did 20 years which is crazy
you write a book and i want everybody to
understand this is after coming out of
jail for 20 years and this this was the
part when i heard this in the book i was
like i know why he's as successful now
as he is
it's a direct quote
all things you put in your mind of why
you can't win or why you can't do this
oh they racist oh this oh they hating
that's all [ __ ] make it happen let
me tell you something every key to every
closed door on this planet is right here
in your mind all you got to do is
believe in yourself and stop bsing stop
making excuses
it gives me the chills rereading it now
it really gave me the chills the first
time i read it
how after what you've been through
growing up north philadelphia what gave
you that insight that that insight to me
is the difference between success and
failure if you blame other people even
when it's real even when somebody is
actively [ __ ] you up if you focus on
them and what they're doing and the
things you can't control you will lose
but if you even when someone is [ __ ]
you up you focus on what you can do what
you can change what's in your control
you will win but that that insight is
hard
where did did somebody say something you
read no it wasn't really about somebody
saying then it just about once i was
sitting in my cell and i realized that i
used to i used to chase the police
what do you mean i used to chase police
out there like in philly i was a guy
that used to do a bunch of dumb [ __ ] and
weighed the police down yo come get me
because chasing police literally waved
them
doing dumb [ __ ] like i was so it was
like i can't blame the homies because
they ain't got nothing to do with this i
can't blame like when we go through
something we always looking for somebody
to blame for our existence in a [ __ ]
up place
no
i paid for this train ticket to here
i paid for the train ticket i got on the
train it was many stops before that i
could have got off no i went to the
final destination i arrived here in jail
oh let's do it i got to do this now this
this is my reality okay how did i get
here wallow i wanna i'm gonna push you
on that because your punch line is so
powerful but it gets more powerful the
more people know about your story
so when was the first time that you were
locked up uh june 30 of 1990 i was 11
for a couple days 11. yeah i was 11
philadelphia north philadelphia uh
philippi county i got arrested for
robbery and then a week later this was
on a saturday the saturday later i got
rested again and september 19 1990 i got
sent away for a year st michael school
for boys uh i did a year there came on a
home pass back and forth
got came home once i finished the year
got arrested again went back for another
year and i just was in in and out of the
juvenile facility for five years okay so
in and out of the five years of your
youth yes did they ever try to
help you teach you a useful skill
i became what happened was i became they
put me in a habitual offenders union
so i never forget it i had this uh
probation officer named ruth marcus she
was a lovely lady she always tried to
help me in every type of way she was
real communicative with my mother and
all that she always tried to help me
they took me away from her i got this
other uh a probation officer named
denise villetto i think she wanted to
turn it to fbi agent she was no [ __ ]
joke uh denise was denise was something
different denise wasn't no joke like
and
even with her being no joke
she still
she's had conversations with me and i
think she wanted me to win she's not i
ain't gonna say i think she wanted me to
win a lot of times when people bring run
down on us and bring us that and bring
us that friction we freeze up and we
think they [ __ ] and all that to me
at the time she was a [ __ ] but when
i think about it as i got older you know
she just really
she just really was trying to see me win
you know and uh
but i was in there in and out five years
and then out that juvenile system and
then when i turned 17 i got locked up
with two robberies two firearm
violations and that's when i got 19
after 52 years combined in two different
senses and and uh
like it was just like damn and then when
i went to jail
i'm like over the years it took some
time because you grow you're growing in
here i realized hold up
i spent more time incarcerated than i
did free on this planet [ __ ] me up that
[ __ ] me up like i'm saying i'm sitting
in a cell i'm like oh this this is some
crazy [ __ ] so you just like all right
cool i got to figure this [ __ ] out now
now what is the reality of the [ __ ] what
did i do to get here really fast i want
to talk about that moment because so so
far it seems like you have a litany of
things that you could blame from
uh
culture determines what is cool you're
just trying to fit in you're in an
impoverished neighborhood it's a
neighborhood notorious for crime so
you're already put in that there's sort
of generational poverty issues all to
take into account there's a system that
is not exactly preparing you for
anything i've heard you say that the
juvenile system makes you feel at home
in the penitentiary it's like a training
school yeah that john was so sorry
there is a list of things you could
blame you're still not blaming them for
the person right now that is
subconsciously or consciously spending
their time focused on that stuff i want
to understand how
how you
think about
there are real things that are [ __ ]
you up they're real yeah
but it still doesn't help you
to focus on those and i want to know
what it is you've learned about life
because you're a marketer like you you
figure out how the game works and then
you go i'm not going to judge it i'm
just going to say this is the best way
to play it and that's what makes you so
interesting so what was the key insight
about how how life works that made you
go even though i have reasons like these
are real legitimate reasons for me to
just stay broken
it's not a smart play why isn't it a
smart play to wallow in that because uh
it is gonna have me in the same place
i'm gonna be in the same place i might
not be doing crime but i'm still gonna
be living a loser lifestyle because i'm
a complainer i'm gonna you know i'm
american complaining i just complain
complain that [ __ ] don't work
i ain't got time for that [ __ ] tom i
got listen let me explain something to
you tom i'm 42 years old just turned it
a couple days ago okay bet is it big is
it a big is a big chance that
now sixty percent maybe eighty
maybe ninety percent of my life is going
already i don't have [ __ ] time tom is
not waiting for me tom is not my friend
and i'm not talking about your type of
time i'm talking about t-i-m-e
tom don't like nobody time hate all of
us
tom is trying to stay away from us
you think i'ma waste the rest of the
time that i got to be operating out here
crying and complaining blaming somebody
no
i know why i'm there because you know
why i was a guy it was plenty of people
that i know that came from the
environment that produced me did i come
from
that didn't go where i went
so
what i'm complaining about oh this
happened oh i was living here what about
all the people listen i know more people
in inner cities
that's law-abiding tax-paying citizens
that never did nothing wrong that's
living their life to not do this
criminal now
um they might over report
crimes in my environment through the
media do television so you see it so it
makes it look like but what is it like
1.7 million people in philadelphia how
many of them people you think is
criminals
not a lot it's not a large percentage
so i'm like hold up i could blame
artists i ain't got time for that
because you think i got i got 10 years
to be a blamer and a complainer you know
how many you know how much time and
energy people spend the average person
and i'm just doing a ballpark figure
they spend years and [ __ ] years maybe
a decade complaining bitching and
whining and still nothing changed
i could be using that time to change my
life i could be using that time to
embrace the reality of life in the
reality of the [ __ ] that i'd done to put
myself i paid for my ticket i got on the
train it was many stops that came i
didn't get off at them stops i went to
the final destination of the [ __ ]
that i was living in
i enjoyed being that i was married to
the streets of philadelphia i enjoyed
that dumb [ __ ] so i had to okay i went
through the process of that dumb [ __ ] i
grew up i evolved from that now it's
time to live
now it's time to just be out here on a
journey through life experiencing new
things new ideas exposure and that's
what i realized
i wasn't a lot of us don't expose
ourselves to new things new ideas we're
not open open the different open to
change and that's what helped me i
became open to all this [ __ ] and so i'm
like okay damn that's different let me
try that damn this oh let me jump out of
a plane damn let me do this like some
real [ __ ] and you know and like why i'm
here i'm living this [ __ ] out cause when
i'm gonna tell you some real [ __ ] time
when i [ __ ] die it's gonna be a party
in that [ __ ] graveyard because
my tombstone is gonna be playing music
and bouncing all around that [ __ ]
graveyard i'm not gonna be laying dead
because that dash that's between the
year i was born in the year i die that
[ __ ] is gonna be break dancing off that
tombstone cause i'm leaving all that
[ __ ] here i'm leaving it here so it's
like why the [ __ ] should i complain i
heard you say once that you only die
once but you live every day very [ __ ]
day you see i'm saying you think about
that that day that you die once
see a lot of times people put living as
just one big thing there's not no one
big thing it's things it's days
every day you doing something [ __ ]
different think about this
50 something months ago i was sitting in
a cell waiting to go to child standing
for count now i'm in the hollywood
[ __ ] hills with you think about that
i walk right out of here and i look at
the whole
the whole l.a i can see every tired part
of la every movie i ever seen everything
i ever seen is right down in there
think about that [ __ ] man i'm out here
doing what i want to do
you know uh you know we go from prison
to closing multi-million dollar deals
and doing speaking all over the come on
man
[ __ ] it you know why because i wasn't i
wasn't going to be a victim of self
see a lot of people be victim myself
this victimization is self-victimization
oh
what i mean oh this is happening why
this is doing to me i want black oh i'm
this i live in a ghetto i'm i'm the
[ __ ] i'm i'm i'm from deep in
the ghetto
i come from the ghetto time
but i'm out here making [ __ ] happen and
i got to show these young kids in the
inner cities of america or kids period
not just the kids but i focus mainly on
them because they still sponge they're
still impressionable they're still
trying to figure out life and like a lot
of times adults they be locked in
already on what they want to do they
just know how to disguise the [ __ ]
that they claim that they want to let go
of they just know how to put a different
uniform on it kids they're growing up
they're impressionable and the
imagination is everything and that's
that's something that's very important
in my journey my imagination
yeah so that this idea is really
powerful
one thing that
to lead up to that so people really let
this one hit when you say it
the inner cities break
most of the people that it touches
every now and then though someone comes
out and they come out so with so much
velocity it was like for them trying to
escape took so much energy and they
built so much enthusiasm and intensity
up that when they shoot out they go
really far you can look at somebody like
jay-z for an example of that
now prison breaks most of the people
that it touches yes but the people that
survive again the same thing never going
back they build up this energy and that
escape velocity is [ __ ] crazy
part of the reason i when i first
started researching you
i was like
okay he got a 20-year
sentence but there's no way he did 20
years and the reason i couldn't
reconcile it in my mind that you'd
actually serve 20 years is you were so
positive
energetic enthusiastic
focused on all the things you were going
to make happen there was no sense of
loss or mourning it was just like
at 20 years a long [ __ ] time man no
but see you got to understand this
i wasn't in jail i was in yale i wasn't
in prison i was in princeton i wasn't in
the state pen i was in penn state how
the [ __ ] do you think like that because
you know why i took the time and i say
okay this is time for me to you know
educate myself it was it was this book
place that we used to order from come
our hamiltons i think it was out
connecticut somewhere in these you'll
get books at probably like 20 for like
three dollars so i used to get a lot of
books i used to read i used to read
magazines all the time i used to i used
to study the [ __ ] out of marketing
because what i used to do is i used to
always watch commercials i remember one
of my sellers like why the [ __ ] you
always watching the commercials and
outside of the commercials i used to
watch anthony bourdain the reason i used
to watch commercials so much was because
i was always fascinated with like
hell
when i went to mcdonald's that burger
ain't never [ __ ] looked like that
so maybe start right then i realized it
was the advertising agency that that was
then i started studying advertising
agencies running up who then i started
studying i read a book by called damn
good of rights by george lewis one of
the great admin of his time they did the
uh this tv show mad men it was about him
this dude was a master so i'm reading
this book i'm learning about nanosecond
messaging and all this stuff i'm really
realizing the color red is the most
powerful marketing i'm just studying
commercials i'm looking at things and
i'm like so the whole time i'm in here
i'm just reading i'm learning i'm
laughing and one of my homies said man
why are you the happiest [ __ ] in
jail
i said yo man i know why i'm here
like [ __ ] i'm not here i'm not innocent
it's sorry to anybody else i know why
i'm here i know what the [ __ ] i've done
i know why i'm here but i'm not gonna be
mad i gotta listen i'm trying to i can
see the end of this [ __ ] i'm looking at
the end i'm chasing into the tunnel and
when i get there i'm gonna be on point
so it was like
but but when we talk about imagination
let me tell you something
as a as a kid your imagination would be
endless oh i want to fly i want to do
this i'm telling my unbelievable
imagination
imagination is destroyed by family
members others people kill ideas you got
idea killers out here a lot of times
these kids they can't grow into what
they want to grow in because they they
live in environments where their ideas
is beat up and whereas though they got
to suffocate their ideas and somehow
they care late ideas and they bury the
ideas because they don't want to get
laughed at it they're ashamed of it so
by me going to prison from 17 to 37
well you know experience life lived
experience life will [ __ ] destroy
your imagination if you're adele if i
was out here
and i probably live
had a kid went through different
relationships jobs this whatever i was
doing
got shot whatever might happen
it started to deteriorate your
imagination by time i probably hit 27
i'd have been done i'm dreaming i
probably stopped dreaming by me going to
prison what it did is
it froze the imagination that i had
so when i'm in prison the whole time i'm
not living the life that most people be
living and beating them down and wearing
them down and becoming jaded and getting
their ass kicked by life so when i come
out 37 i'm still in there reading all
type of [ __ ] and then when it was 2000
and you know 2013
i got my hands on an ipod touch and a
wireless hot spot in jail
and when i got that [ __ ] [ __ ] i came
alive
that's when i came alive when i seen
technology and see the potential i seen
the potential and i realized okay
these people don't understand what's
going on i realized the stars they
couldn't see what you [ __ ] no humans
i'm looking at it and i'm looking at the
people from my environment i'm like yo
okay i'm in my cell i'm on social media
i'm going down
now social media the timeline everybody
is battling for attention attention is
real estate attention is the new
currency so everybody's battling for
that [ __ ]
so i said okay you see this athlete
that's why they're watching because
you're an athlete if you ain't an
athlete why would i care
if you're not a girl that's half naked
on instagram why would i care if you're
not a rapper why would i care that's
what the average person say
i realized that social media gave me
this gave everybody a stage
but a lot of people don't know it's a
stage to introduce people to their ideas
their outlooks of life or whatever and i
also don't know how to capitalize on it
so there's an interesting part of your
story you're coming out of prison you
don't have two nickels to rub together
and you've got to find a way to get
local businesses to let you be basically
their pitch man so that's already
impressive but what i did was i went to
these businesses and i just did it for
free to get my proof of concept
i had to get listen i had to show you i
had to have some proof so i could take
the proof of concept and be able to say
when you go on my page and to be able to
say oh my god or just be able to say tom
might be like oh my god i seen that uh
that that commercial you did at that rib
[ __ ]
i want one of them how much
i never forget it was it was a place it
was a you know
home health care place uh
they paid me like my first check it was
to do is to do a commercial form
and when i shot in an iphone or an
iphone yeah i just went there tell me my
friend to hold the camera i said hold
this camera and i just did it
and it was like
it was out of here like i'm telling i
did it for 500 but when they called me
that was that was the first time i
really charged him like 500. i'm like oh
[ __ ] i just was out of jail not that i'm
like oh [ __ ] there's a market for this
and then i just start charging and then
the prices start going up for 5 000 1500
and it's just walking up on somebody you
tell them you got a business all right
that's how much it costs i'm looking at
i'm doing my research on google finding
out what's the price point okay this is
the price point boom boom boom bang okay
that's how much i posed to get oh i
opposed to get a hundred dollars for ten
thousand followers or whatever how did
you figure stuff out when you didn't
know how am i supposed to charge like
i'm google man i'm google i'm google
listen i'm an alumni
i'm telling my google university and
youtube i went to the universities
done my them my colleges i got a degree
i got a degree in information from them
two places that's the easiest tell
people what you thought when you first
heard about google though i lost my mind
i thought i thought this the kid i'm
walking in because you're in prison for
a long time at this point i'm a prisoner
so the young kid come in i knew his pop
family whatever he telling me like yo uh
it's this thing called google and i'm
like okay yeah yeah
yeah you could look this up i could look
up anything i was listening to him then
when he said i can't even look at blue
you
say why the [ __ ] would you be able to
look at me and i've been in jail all
this time that don't make no [ __ ]
sense i'm not that stupid kid i know
i've been in jail i'm not that slow
right cause i really believe so i went
and i wrote it down in my book of life
the book of life is something i wrote a
bunch of stuff down that i got to check
out when i get home from jail or things
i want to do whatever
so when i you know associate of mine
give me the ipod touch and the white
clear wireless hotspot
and i'm doing the research and i went on
google and i typed my name in and [ __ ]
popped up i dropped the phones like oh
[ __ ] the feds on me
they ready this way to be a ricoh act
for a cell phone in jail right so i'm
just like i'm thinking crazy as [ __ ]
so i'm praying i'm like oh [ __ ] this is
real
and it was over from them once i knew
that i could go in here and research i'm
like
it cut the middle man out like with me
it was like okay i need like nipsey [ __ ]
the middle man i don't need the
middleman now because now anything i
need to know i don't have to waste the
time to ask you to try to that's just
like um
you know when you're voting or something
back in the day you had to go off the
stuff that you seen on tv about a
candidate cause you what you gonna go to
the library where you're gonna find out
where can you fact check so i went
online you go online now
you okay this is what this is about this
and that's what helped me so much
anything that i wanted to do
i go right on there how do how do how do
i do this or how to i'm talking about
everything like i always get my youtube
plaque and i was telling a tumor
to mobasa i mean great great friend of
mine i was from youtube i was telling
him yeah i just went on there and just
looked it up it took me a couple of
minutes god told me exactly what to do
to get my youtube plaque my hundred
thousand i went it was done i was there
in a week it was that easy dude here's
the thing that's really fascinating
about you so one you've got this
imagination piece you actually allow
yourself to be childlike to imagine a
world that's like
understand that you're in prison there's
nothing but walls and lock up and and
just
it would be all too easy to only see the
heartbreak of prison and yet through
anthony bourdain through commercials
through other people coming in that i
know you used to like pin them down and
ask them a lot of questions about
whatever people like you you let your
imagination roam and i don't think it's
as simple as oh well i was in prison
that froze my imagination i think most
people their imagination dies in prison
yours didn't so you you
fan the flames of this imagination you
let that run well you got your book of
life you're keeping all these notes but
the key [ __ ] thing that i want people
to take away from you is you never said
oh but this isn't for me
it was always i can imagine it and i'm
going to go make it real in my life
everything for me that's on this planet
everything that i want to do is for me
that's why it's here
everything that you want to do you can
do that's why it's here because it's
about are you willing to put the [ __ ]
work
and when that person is you going to
persevere to be able to is you going to
stay down
everything you want to do i don't i
don't know what you want to do if you
say damn i want to be a chef
because you won't put in the work to do
that you're going to do the research is
you want to study the greats
or maybe not study the degree so you're
going to come with some new ideas and
new approaches to being a culinary and a
culinary field chef whatever everything
is out here for everybody that's why
it's out here once you're able to
breathe you got all the tools you need
so yeah but getting people to understand
that's really hard so my last company
quest we had a lot of employees and
about a thousand of them grew up in the
inner cities and i remember one kid like
my whole thing was trying to get them to
understand like that what separates you
from success is a lot of execution
that's it nothing else matters like kobe
bryant has one of my favorite quotes
booze don't block dunks you can
literally hate a person you can actually
pay an entire team millions of dollars
to try to stop this man from scoring a
basket they have every incentive in the
known universe to stop him but he's so
good he scored 81 points in a single
[ __ ] game so at some point your
talent just shuts everybody down i love
that about life now one of my guys came
to me and was like yo tom this is crazy
like you're making me rethink my whole
life because my mom told me that the
world doesn't want people that look like
me to succeed he was a hispanic kid and
i was like
bless your mom i bet she's the most
wonderful person on the planet earth but
that is terrible [ __ ] advice and
honestly it doesn't [ __ ] matter even
if and this is like my obsession this is
why i love your message even if the
world doesn't want you to succeed if
you're good enough they can't [ __ ]
stop you
and when you take out that middleman and
you've got a device like this that lets
people build [ __ ] like
literally you're you're limited by your
imagination and your work and that's it
now i'm not saying that it isn't harder
for some people i'm just saying that it
is possible
and that's what makes this collision for
you of imagination and
the whole world's here for me
so [ __ ] magical everybody you know
why
number one the thing about the kobe
thing like you were saying i got a lot
of you know like with me one of my
sayings is hey this is your marketing
team let them work let me explain
something to you you know what haters do
they tell the world about you they're
free marketing and what they do if
you're if you really if you really the
[ __ ] out here and you ain't playing no
games
and i'm telling you kicking ass out here
when a hater tells somebody about you
and they go look you up and do something
you got new supporters they introduce
new people to you because they always
talking about you so they don't even
matter like he said booze do not block
no shots yelling and hector do not block
no shots they're gonna have you leaving
the game telling somebody how you
[ __ ] hate me so much or whatever's
going on cool to me this is what we
gotta understand
everything you want is out here see to
me the world is one big library and
everybody's a book
you got books on coding
you got books on mechanics you got books
on culinary you got comic books you got
street novels you got crime manuals
read your books wisely choose them
wisely
watch what books you read but every
human being on here got a journey
and they know something that you might
don't know
so it's like everything is out here but
what made it even more possible is that
that world that's the library i got it
in my pocket in the phone they gave me
they put a computer in my pocket they
didn't [ __ ] up
you [ __ ] up
because
that's the only thing i ever wanted was
a phone coming out of jail i just wanted
two phones i didn't care about nothing
else
why two phones two phones because one i
could be listening to my music on
another i could be recording myself
you think i'm saying yeah i'm a really
emotional person like i love to feel i
love to cry i love the uh just be soft i
love that because i was neglected from
that growing up in inner cities of
america because i was taught how to be
tough so now as adult i just feel good
it feels so good to be able to cry do
you get backlash on that from the
streets no no i don't it wouldn't even
matter i didn't i run my life not the
streets you know what i'm saying like i
dictate the life that i and i'm not
looking for your approval to put to live
i did that too much growing up in the
ghetto i always had to get approval to
live and the proof of the thing the
approval to be accepted that [ __ ] don't
mean nothing to me i just i just feel so
good
like i think i'm in my i think i'm at my
best
my the best feeling possible but i'm
able to feel something and be able to
react with my emotions in it and to be
able to embrace what i'm feeling and to
be able to cry i love crying on the
aspect of like it just feel good because
i'm letting something go out and i used
to remember when i used to be feeling a
certain way and i couldn't let it out
because of the environment that said
that wasn't cool or it would be soft
so it was just like that [ __ ] was that
[ __ ] is like everything to me crying and
just feeling it just feeling it like
it's hard to explain but it's like to be
to not be able to do something for so
long didn't grow to understand your
emotions and your feelings it's like
that [ __ ] is like everything i'm talking
about that [ __ ] is everything to me and
uh to be able to feel because i
i never could feel at one time i wasn't
allowed to feel when i was taught that
that wasn't tough
i mean you know so like that [ __ ] is
amazing you know crying to me that's
that's sick like
even especially in an era where
so you've talked a lot about the bottom
controls culture and so you've got these
people that you were saying earlier
forgotten but at the same time that's
where our whole notion of cool comes
from the streets hip-hop music all that
so even if you're not from the streets
the element of cool to want to be cool
to not be soft there's something amazing
about somebody like you being who
has the bona fides of having been from
one of the roughest neighborhoods in
america having spent time in prison and
come out okay and
um for you to say that i crying is
everything to me yeah that's [ __ ]
powerful i got a responsibility to
educate young people in a way
because i'm exposed to more things and i
know a lot from being exposed i haven't
been in some big rooms i'd have been in
some big places with some big people
some big ideas
some big environments so i think it's my
duty to educate them on life and living
as i see it on the next level and as
being exposed
uh exposure is everything and that's why
a lot of people can't grow because
there'd be an environment and like where
i'm from the ghetto builds walls i
jumped over the [ __ ]
you see i'm saying i was able to jump
over and i'm trying to get other kids
you'll jump over that idea of what
you're supposed to be in this box of
which you got to be in order to be
whatever you think is cool or whatever
cool is you you've got a really powerful
idea in your book that you talk about
which is you can't copy and paste your
way to success
talk to me about that in in the terms of
that box of what you're supposed to be
and how that sort of in and of itself is
going to stop you think about this
everybody got
people that's interested in today's
thing whatever you went to so you try to
copy and paste you will see somebody say
oh i'm gonna do that no
no just because they wanted that they
don't mean you're gonna do that dennis
rodman what i loved about him all he did
was [ __ ] with people
and he won that was his style that was
his approach he's going to file you he's
going to whisper some [ __ ] in your ear
but outside of that he's going to grab a
thousand rebounds and he was necessary
in order to win he brought some real
[ __ ] there he knew when he got on the
court this is my position this is what i
could do that nobody else can do that's
why i loved him because he was just
different he understood that
a lot of people don't want to do that
they want to copy and paste somebody
else and try to
emulate their whole situation and think
they're going to win and be mad when
they don't
you know and that's the problem out here
you can't copy and paste you know you
got to figure your life out because
whatever you're doing is going to be
some people that's going to
is it's an audience out there for
everything i'm realizing so you got to
just stay focused don't be looking at
nobody else too much how do people to
find out like what their flavor is like
so many people one of the number one
questions i get asked is how to figure
that out like hey cool i buy what wallow
267 is saying
but who the [ __ ] am i oh you got to
re-evaluate yourself you got to have a
real conversation with self everything
is in here
everything you need to know is inside of
you um and you got to get to know you
sometimes you got to you got to remove
yourself from people places and things
that's not just not you're going to
allow you to embrace the reality and
your individualism of who you are
and that's that's what's important
that's the most important [ __ ] ever and
it's already in you people tell me how
why is you asking me
you know you you know your journey you
know what's holding you back you know
the horrors of your life you know the
joys of your life you know who your
parents was the house you grew up in
what affected you whereas though you
feel as though you stopped growing you
stopped living you stopped dreaming what
moment what was that go back and deal
with that figure it out you know if you
need a therapist do that whatever but
you gotta have a conversation with self
about the reality of your journey and
once you connect with that it's a wrap
when did you stop dreaming that's a
really powerful question yeah because
[ __ ] stopped dreaming in their
imagination to die
relationships will [ __ ] you up
rather friendships or regular love
relationships it's a it's a paralyzed
and the end of relationships can become
paralyzing because it makes you doubt
yourself yeah and it makes you do all
type of [ __ ] now you asking questions
you asking all these questions person
might don't want to be with you no more
why i'm not enough oh my god now you're
going to depression all you're thinking
about all this [ __ ] uh you know y'all
not together marriages all that [ __ ]
that [ __ ] [ __ ] people up it's
devastating to people oh was they
cheating on me was i not enough did they
want somebody else or
that's why i say when did your dreams
die
what happened to your life where you
just stopped and it snatched something
out of you and you just start going into
a different place you start eating a
bunch of [ __ ] now oh laying there i
don't want to let all this dumb [ __ ]
when did that happen
when did you dream like because you know
i'll hear
a lot of times
you got idea killers out here
and sometimes the idea killers and the
dream killers be yourself
it don't be nobody else
see nobody can make you do something
nobody if they don't have no gun to you
and no [ __ ] like that
you're only doing this because you want
to do it you know what i mean so you got
to figure out [ __ ] you can have ideas
you can listen to me you can listen to
this person that person but at the end
of the day you got to listen to self
because you got to get up and figure it
out every [ __ ] day while you're here
and you can't waste your time if you
waste your time you to [ __ ] trouble
because guess what i'm not wasting mine
yeah no [ __ ]
this whole idea of building yourself so
as you're talking about people going
through the end of a relationship and
it's traumatic and it's got them asking
all these questions in that moment i
know why it's so dangerous is they're
re-piecing themselves back together
right so the end of the relationship
sort of broke them apart they had a
sense of identity as that pairing
whether friends or romantic
and when that shatters apart now they're
like wait who am i really maybe i am a
loser maybe i'm not worthy and so as
they build back up that vision of
themselves it's usually worse
is there you talked in prison this uh i
heard you in an interview talking about
prison you said you know something
happens to your mind when you walk by a
guy getting stabbed and tell the other
guy yeah and i said i had to get tired
yeah i had to go insane in order to stay
sane that's why i protected my mind when
i was in prison because i would have ran
up against some [ __ ] mentally how did
you protect it i protected it because i
had to go insane in order to stay sane
meaning
i had to convince myself that all the
[ __ ] that i'm going to see during this
journey of prison
is normal
if i didn't i was in [ __ ] trouble but
didn't at some point you realize
actually maybe that served me for a
while but now i have to do something
different or did that mentality carry
you all the way through no what it did
is
i learned how to uh
after a while i removed myself from a
lot of people in prison a lot of things
i stopped having certain conversations
stop being around certain people if i've
seen if i felt tension i wouldn't go to
the yard or all type of [ __ ] so i
wouldn't have to be exposed to a lot of
more [ __ ] because in prison you could
seclude yourself you don't have to go to
a certain place you could you know you
could do your own thing and uh but it
was a time where as though it protected
me
it really protected me because you know
prison is a scary place and when i went
first with this prison i was scared to
death i thought somebody was going to
try to do something to you don't know
because i'm only going off the tv and
what i heard
and
the
the education of prison based off in the
entertainment industry
is so far off
it's so much more barbaric
on tv you know than it is in real life
like people be in their mind in a
business a lot of times but when that
[ __ ] go down and go down and you'll see
some [ __ ] but i'm saying that that's how
i protected myself it's like and then
when it was time for me to go home i had
to debrief myself it's like coming you
know coming out of war or some [ __ ] this
is different you know but it's like what
did that process look like what did you
actually do i deprogrammed myself you
know talking to yourself
understanding writing stuff down
understanding processing remembering
what i've seen
understanding that that [ __ ] wasn't
right whatever i made seeing them seeing
everybody's that so it's like
understanding certain [ __ ] and just like
yo
get your mind ready for the real world i
started removing myself from a lot of
things that as it was time for me to go
home so i could prepare myself to
embrace the reality of the real life
reality of the human human connection
and [ __ ] like that so you know that [ __ ]
was that's what that was about and did
you have like something specific in your
mind where you like okay this is because
you talk about the real world and i look
at your business career and what you've
been able to achieve and it's
this is not somebody who's sort of
making it up as they go this is somebody
who's put a lot of research in who've
read books on marketing who
engages in their own branding who went
you know walking around the streets
selling merch understanding what it
takes to sell like so when you think
about the real world is it largely from
a business perspective like
when you say get ready for the real
world what is that it's just it's not
just about business that's that's just
that that's not the biggest part of my
life it's just about living
like uh getting ready for the world
world was just living you know uh
meeting my family meeting them again
because you don't like most of my time
on earth i've been in institutions so it
was like i know my family but we don't
really know each other so you gotta it's
a reintroduction to family um
get getting out here and seeing things
you know and just and just living you're
working really hard to be successful
what would you say is like the most
important thing to live life well
is it pursuing something that matters to
you is it family like what is that
to me
it's just living when i say living i
mean
doing what you really
really want to do like i realized that
not wanting to need anything is having
everything
when you get to the point where it's
though you're not chasing no more but i
love the idea of
taking a piece of paper
sitting down in a notebook
writing something down and saying i'm
gonna start this i love to create new
[ __ ] and i do it that day it's a day and
he called yeah i need his uh llc i need
his trademark i need this logo done boom
and just get it like to be able to bring
something from nothing put oxygen into
idea of thought that's everything to me
walk people through the process so
you you do this you call somebody but
like you had to learn who the person is
that you call you had to learn about
trademarks and copyrights like how did
you begin to put this i read about this
[ __ ] in jail religiously but when i came
home what was so interesting i went to
atlanta to wash my eyes
what does that mean
when i when i came home a good friend of
mine childhood friend is like his sister
to me named nadia
i used to call her when i was in prison
and she was down in atlanta and now they
used to always say you're going to come
down here while everybody say they go i
said no i'ma come down here i always see
a lane on tv i'm coming down the lane
i'm coming today it's amazing down there
right so one day i was in my grandmom
neighborhood where i was born and raised
and she ride past she said wally were
you she jumped out she's like wow you
got to come down the lane i said okay
i'm gonna come down atlanta
and i made these shirts called i said
i'm gonna bring i'm gonna make some new
shirts i'm gonna come down land up she's
like cause she had a consignment shop on
peter street and i said all right i'm
coming down there
he's like you can sell your shirts in my
shop i said all right cool i went
i created this this logo called
atlanta versus the world
trade market and all that
but
i wound up trademarking it later but i
took them down printed it up said i'm
going on it and the reason i said i had
to wash my eyes because i came back to
philly and it's so poverty and it was so
real and the violence was so on another
level
i had to wash my eyes coming home to
this
i didn't want to be penetrated by
just what i was seeing i had to see some
i had to see
people doing good from the from the
inner cities
that look like me i wanted i wanted to
be inspired even more
so i went down atlanta that's why i say
washing my eyes atlanta washed my eyes
for me to see yo this [ __ ] is real
people was making things happen they're
winning they're successful and i and
when i went down there i'm right there
on uh peter street
with nadia i'm standing in front of her
shop
and
one of the greatest people i ever met
since i've been home this is like a
sister to me
i meet
shay m lawson esquire i'm sitting there
in front of the shop
and i hear this lady sitting there
talking
she told me yeah and she was talking
about copyrights and i'm and i'm air
hustling our conversation i was supposed
to be but she was loud i think and i was
i think it was cool for me to be
listening to our conversation and she
was like yeah cause the trademark i mean
she was saying something about
copyrights or something so i knew she
was a lawyer by the way she was talking
and how they would handle the gig
because they got a she was getting
somebody it was it was it was a big
artist too and she was making sure some
business was done so when she stopped us
excuse me
i said uh can i speak to you for a
minute
she was like yeah i said uh
and i'm figuring like this is an ip
attorney i already read about it in
prison with an ip attack because i knew
about trademarks i used to read books on
copyrights trademarks and patents that
was the thing because i understood you
know to own something you got to have
your ip ip is everything in this game
you know that you probably got a
shitload of trademarks so
she walked up we did the talk i'm like
she's like yeah i'm intellectual
property attorney
i said yes i've been looking for you
she's a unity but know me
she from cleveland you know she got that
she come from the same environment as i
do so i'm like okay
i said can we can i talk cause you oh
and she said yeah what you're trying to
do and i showed him my page she's like
yo i think what you're doing is great
i'm telling i'm only home like
not even 90 days i don't think like two
minutes she's like she's like i think
what you're doing is great
i said yeah you know um
you know how much is the train but she
said just call me
i called it right
so he said what is your trade i said i
want a trademark my name wallow267
i want a trademark there's always money
in philadelphia because i thought it
just rhymed it's always sunny in
philadelphia there's always money in
philadelphia
you know it's the idea of encouragement
like go hey make you some money you know
everybody want to make money we're not
going to get that i want to make money
everybody want to make money so
next thing you know i called us i want
to do she said listen
you don't have no money to pay me
so i like what you're doing i like what
you got going on my brother was in
prison i love your attitude i love your
energy i'm going to do this for free
her name is shea m lawson out of atlanta
intellectual property attorney and i
said what
i said she kept saying on the phone like
she crazy because she charged this and
she want to do this for free who she
done it and ever since then i always got
her
and then i got i blew up and i was able
to pay her three dollars you know i was
able to pay her for what's name and to
this day she called me that's like a
sister to me she's one of the people
that believed in my journey and that's
how i understand but it's like
i knew from reading the books and all
that stuff
okay gotta get a llc gotta and i still
learn a lot of new stuff gotta do this
let me get this okay once i get the llc
bang let me go and get
the bank account bang i got the tax id
number take this to the bank let me get
let me start operating off this card so
for taxes boom boom boom boom boom all
this all that stuff so you know you just
it's just easy and anything i don't know
i just google there's always somebody on
google see google i got so many friends
on google that i've never met that just
be telling me stuff that i want to know
when i google them and i just get
introduced damn that's my friend now
this guy he told me how to set up my
shopify
he know his stuff but she know so it's
like it's easy to find the [ __ ] out man
but people just like don't want to learn
it like i want to know it if i pay
somebody to do something for me i also
want to know what they supposed to do so
when i pay them i know what the results
are post again right so it's [ __ ] it's
easy to take me like if i wasn't doing
what i was doing i'd probably be my
company i'd be a setup man set your
whole [ __ ] up in a day you know
go and go daddy look for the name okay
it's impact theory oh damn somebody got
that they got that but they're not doing
the same category as what you're gonna
be doing they might have been back there
oh damn when we turn this e into three
uh what it's always i'm always thinking
of a way to try to figure this [ __ ] out
so we can have that
universally the same name social media
all the way around i don't want to be
changing it that always drives me crazy
too when i see a brand and a name is not
universal everywhere it's like yo why is
your twitter name different from you
it's getting harder and harder by the
day yeah that's why you gotta find
unique names and write a bunch of names
down when you got an idea literally the
so i'm obsessed with this idea of people
learning the rules of the game like that
if
if they're going to put something on my
tombstone it would be this tom explained
to me that there is uh i'm having a
biological experience so understand that
you're in a body and that body [ __ ]
with your mind yes and then the other
part is there's rules to this game and
if you get good enough booze don't block
dunks
like that's what i want people to get
and i remember the first time i heard
the way that 50 cent was moving and like
the vitamin water deal and that with his
check he trademarked a bunch of terms
and [ __ ] he got that original deal
and i was like this [ __ ] like he
knows how to move
and when i hear somebody like you talk
i'm like i really hope people are paying
attention you had the insight to learn
about trademarks copyrights all that
stuff to actually get in and do that
stuff and therefore you have ownership
over the the ideological uh real estate
in your life and
i i am tempted not to tell this story
because i don't want other people to do
it
but
i had a kid recently he bought tom
bilyeu.eth
and i thought well of course tom billy
nobody knows what dot ether dresses are
like it's the world's smallest subset of
humanity
but because i talk about my involvement
in crypto and i talk about my
involvement in nfts this kid went out
and bought tom bilyeu.eth and ethereum
yeah so i reached out to him and said
hey i'd like to buy tombilia.etha i've
been playing that for years though now
this [ __ ] goes i'll trade you
for two calls spread out over six months
with you and so he had that [ __ ] on tap
like he knew exactly what he wanted he
knew exactly why he picked that [ __ ] up
and so i agreed and so i was like dude i
charge
dollars for my time so for this kid to
get that much of my time what would have
cost me like four dollars is crazy so
but he understood the rules of the game
that's the point and when you understand
the rules of the game you understand how
people are going to be moving now all of
a sudden you can do things that other
people can't do but having somebody like
you with your pedigree saying this is
how you win
like that to me is how we begin to pull
that next generation forward
because
ultimately my thesis is
all the societal change in the world
will never do
what will happen if each individual
takes responsibility for themselves and
says i'm going to learn the rules of the
game and i'm just going to play it
better than other people
that to me like is that but you know
what you know you
you you know what
i understand tom a lot of people hear
rules rules has always been a bad thing
in our life
so when you even say rules to the game
it's like ah
that's a bunch of time i can't do this i
can't do that not understand it we're
just talking about application
how to apply to the things that you say
that you want
but the word rules
scare everybody like oh my god no a rule
i can't do this no we just telling you
how to apply yourself to the next level
how to set yourself up for ownership the
game now as you know it is about
ownership more than anything in the
world
this dude said let me say let me go and
uh
go daddy and pay 11 a year
to leverage time
i'm going to get time on the phone for
a year he bought that off of godaddy for
about
no doubt it's only like eleven dollars a
year for the for a domain name
and he got how how much of service is
that how much of service is that
he uh all together so for me he'll get
two hours of my time
which would be
six figures
so
yeah he turned it would have been
probably four dollars because it's a dot
ether dress so we turned four dollars
into about 150 000.
ownership yup
on all he did was took a couple minutes
he he stalked your life said damn i
gotta get the time
oh
i got him
got him
yeah it's [ __ ] clever because he know
the rules this dude just knew the rules
regular how old was he
he looks like he's in his mid-20s
young kid too look at this he under he
he know the rules and that's what it's
about you're going to give him you know
six figures about
four dollars because you know the rules
but one thing is words words scare us
words
they're they're horrifying
and that word rule is horrifying so
people don't want to do it they ever say
oh let me pay you to do it for
me we don't know if it's gonna be done
right because you don't even know the
rules and know what's supposed to be
done you know what i'm telling you that
i've done for you
so it's a game changer so you know
nobody want to know the rules i enjoy
the rules
yeah i mean that that to me is a big
part of what makes your story so
fascinating is just how much time you've
spent learning
and that you learn with such enthusiasm
there's one of my favorite quotes is
churchill and he said success is the
ability to go from failure to failure to
failure without a loss of enthusiasm
and when i think about your story i just
man it's really incredible that it
didn't break you that you know all the
different things you've had to go
through
you're so enthusiastic and you're so
positive and upbeat which one makes
people want to be around you which is
another thing from the moment you walked
into my house you've been energetic
enthusiastic positive like engaging
and
that's
that's really a part of your secret
sauce i've seen some of the most
angriest [ __ ] on the history of
life i think
i've been around some of the most angry
as [ __ ] and i'd have been
around some angry people and they
enjoyed being around me in prison
because i was just always talking [ __ ]
like you know i was the guy that used to
run around jail talking [ __ ] like not in
a threatening way but like in a funny
way joking about [ __ ] whatever and i'm
telling my i know some i had some old
heads when i was in prison that can be
in and i'm come out and the top five
angriest angriest [ __ ] in the
history of life
but they and i realized that age you it
beats you down
it uh depletes your energy
is worthless
why the [ __ ] should i be a part of that
when i i'm breathing and i got a chance
out here i got to take advantage of
every breath
while i'm out here and i gotta take
advantage of my time while i'm here
because i don't believe we're gonna be
here for long think about this there's a
good possibility that in 30 years me you
might be out of here tom
think about that we might not make it to
tonight that's what i'm saying so why
not live it out why the [ __ ] you think
i'm gonna be sitting here
hey that [ __ ] age you and [ __ ] you up it
[ __ ] your heart up that [ __ ] [ __ ] your
liver up just being angry so it's like
why should i do it i'm just going to
live you know yep
walla man i cannot thank you enough for
coming on dude no thank you for having
me [ __ ] yes thank damon john too
yeah hey thank you dave david john my
listen i'll listen i love damon john
damon john dm me
out of nowhere say listen man we got to
get together send me your number
and he just been tumblr came down to the
inner cities we walked around
interviewed him he just been always
great to me always lending a hand and
and he introdu he exposed me to
different things man he gave me exposure
man i love that guy man you know no he
understood you seen it early respect to
him he bet on the right horse yes but
dude i think the message that you're
bringing to people that you're living
which is way more important to me than
if you were just popping off about it
but that you actually live it you're out
there building businesses you've got
your bar stool deal which is [ __ ]
crushed congratulations
no no listen one thing about them uh
that i loved about them they under they
see it they understand what's going to
happen tomorrow a lot of people don't
understand what's going to happen
tomorrow because they don't study
yesterday but they study it shout out to
erica and dave dave payby over there uh
jen
everybody over there is doing anything
gas i'm tama deidra the whole staff over
there barstool they get it you know
so you know that's what it's about
thanks man dude thank you for everything
you're doing i think it's [ __ ]
brilliant no thank you for having me in
this [ __ ] this extraordinary house on
the top of uh what's this where was we
at top of hollywood the hollywood sound
right next door to this guy this guy's
[ __ ] he's killing it i'm telling i go
right outside his slap box with a
hollywood sign he's killing [ __ ] out
here man this is real life man thank you
for having me tom i appreciate you man
anytime you call them come on
get ready get ready i'll have you back
anytime brother yes thank you man
guys
i'm telling you this is somebody that is
putting it to use a lot of people can
talk not a lot of people are willing to
do and this man does and the fact that
he has all the excuses in the world that
he could lean on and nobody would blame
him he doesn't because it doesn't work
and he has made millions of dollars
out of prison he spent more of his life
in prison than out and yet he's still
out here making an extraordinarily
successful business business says
it's really breathtaking i hope you guys
learned a lot and speaking of things
that will help you in your journey if
you haven't already be sure to subscribe
and until next time my friends be
legendary take care
if you're never gonna forgive him
then you're the one taking the poison
pill hoping he's gonna die or he's gonna
be affected
he says you don't forgive him for him
you forgive him so you can move on