From Addiction to Redemption: Damon West's Inspiring Journey of Transformation

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In this episode of The Jeff Fenster Show, host Jeff Fenster sits down with the incredible Damon West. read in to learn all about what this conversation has in store for you!

In a world where addiction and adversity can often lead to despair and hopelessness, Damon West's remarkable journey serves as a beacon of inspiration and redemption. From a promising career as a division one starting quarterback to a life of addiction, homelessness, and a lengthy prison sentence, Damon's story is a testament to the power of resilience, determination, and the transformative impact of a positive influence.
Transcript
00:00:00 And when they took me to Dallas County Jail, I'll never forget, they set my bond at $1.4 million.
00:00:05 They gave me life in prison.
00:00:06 65 years for this incident.
00:00:08 Without doubt, your story has captivated me, unlike any other story I've ever heard.
00:00:13 The only question you know the answer to in life is the one you don't ask.
00:00:17 That's a no every time.
00:00:20 [MUSIC]
00:00:30 Today on the show we have an extraordinary individual who turned his life around in the most remarkable way.
00:00:38 He was sentenced to 65 years in a Texas State Prison, and his journey has been nothing short of inspiring.
00:00:44 Once a Division I starting quarterback at the University of North Texas, his life took a dark turn after an injury and a battle with addiction.
00:00:52 Despite working in the U.S. Congress and as a stockbroker, addiction to methamphetamines led him down a very destructive path.
00:00:59 During his incarceration, a chance conversation with a fellow inmate sparked a spiritual awakening.
00:01:05 Damon realized he could change his environment, much like a coffee bean transforms water into coffee.
00:01:11 After over seven years in prison, he emerged a changed man, dedicating his life to sharing his story of redemption, grit, and determination.
00:01:19 His message, "The Coffee Bean," has inspired millions and impacted organizations like Walmart, AIG, Chick-fil-A, and even the U.S. Army.
00:01:28 Damon's Wall Street Journal best-selling book, "The Locker Room," is on its way to becoming a film,
00:01:33 and his children's book, "The Coffee Bean for Kids," is sparking coffee bean clubs in schools nationwide.
00:01:39 Today, Damon is committed to spreading the coffee bean message of positive change worldwide.
00:01:45 Most of all, he values his role as a husband and stepfather.
00:01:49 Please welcome to the show my good friend, Damon West.
00:01:52 Welcome to the show, Damon.
00:01:57 Jeff, man, thanks a lot, brother. It's so good to be here, man.
00:02:00 And the fact that, like, we met in April. I can tell you the date. We met April 30th.
00:02:05 It was a date that I spoke at Dan's 100 Million Mastermind.
00:02:07 I get off the stage, you come up to me, and he's like, "Hey, man."
00:02:10 You know, you introduce yourself. I was like, "Man, I just watch you speak. I know exactly who you are."
00:02:13 You said, "I've got a podcast, and I need you to be on this podcast."
00:02:16 And you said, "When can you do this?"
00:02:18 And I'm like, "Well, I'm in Temecula on September 7th."
00:02:21 You're like, "Done." And you put it on the calendar.
00:02:23 And once I put something on the calendar, it's on the calendar, brother. It's getting done.
00:02:26 Thank you, and I'll tell you something.
00:02:28 So, I spoke right before you at that conference.
00:02:31 And usually, I hear part of the person before me and part of the person after me.
00:02:35 I don't always stay for all the speakers.
00:02:38 I started to listen to you speak while I was finishing and talking to a couple people,
00:02:41 and then I sat down to listen to you, and I was captivated.
00:02:44 Wow.
00:02:45 And that's why I walked up to you when you left the stage, because you were my favorite speaker.
00:02:49 And I've never said this to anyone else.
00:02:51 You were my favorite speaker. I've heard speak at an event that I got to speak at as well,
00:02:55 before, after, or in different.
00:02:57 And so I was like, "Damon West is coming on my show."
00:02:59 That is incredible, brother. Thank you so much for that, man.
00:03:02 Your story is incredible.
00:03:05 Well, you know, it is in the sense that I know that people love stories.
00:03:11 They love good storytellers, and I happen to be sitting on a really good story,
00:03:15 because people also love stories that have certain elements in it.
00:03:18 People love overcoming adversity, the comeback story, right?
00:03:21 They love stories about sports. We love sports stories.
00:03:25 But people really love prison stories, and I got it all, brother.
00:03:28 And I've got some incredible prison stories,
00:03:30 stuff that I want to share today that I don't normally get to talk about in my presentation.
00:03:34 Didn't necessarily get to talk about that day, but man, that means a lot to me, what you said.
00:03:39 I'm humbled by it, because there's a lot of speakers that you've seen speak at these events, man.
00:03:43 Well, most speakers--I think you just hit it--most of us speak about entrepreneurship.
00:03:47 Like, I'm really good at entrepreneurship and vertical integration.
00:03:51 Yeah, but your story was incredible.
00:03:52 You told the story of how this whole Everbold thing got started,
00:03:55 the adversity you went through during COVID.
00:03:57 Sure.
00:03:58 It's a product, you know?
00:03:59 But for a lot of people--and I was in their shoes--it's an unobtainable story in their mind.
00:04:04 And my goal on stage is to make them realize that it is obtainable,
00:04:07 that I'm an ordinary guy, and I figured out what extra stuff to get extraordinary results,
00:04:11 which means everyone can do it.
00:04:13 What's fascinating about your story is it hits everybody in a different way.
00:04:19 Absolutely.
00:04:20 And it hit me, and I've never been to prison.
00:04:22 I didn't play college football or have a chance to go pro, and we'll get into all that.
00:04:26 I didn't get into the crime spree.
00:04:29 But when you talk about the coffee bean, when you talked about how you went in
00:04:33 and what your mom told you before you went to prison
00:04:36 and what you had to go through to get there--and we're going to get into it all because it's so good--
00:04:41 you sit there and you reflect on your own life and your own challenges,
00:04:45 and you realize your story is evergreen.
00:04:48 Anybody can be the coffee bean.
00:04:50 Everyone should be the coffee bean in their own life.
00:04:52 And while some of us don't go to prison, some of us don't have Everbold,
00:04:55 some of us--we all have our own thing, and it's just so universally true
00:04:58 that everybody who hears your story is better for it.
00:05:01 And that's what I want--you hit the nail on the head because the whole idea is that
00:05:05 if I could do it in there, if I could transform my life
00:05:09 and become the best version of me inside of a supermax prison in the state of Texas
00:05:14 on the worst part of prison where the lifers go,
00:05:17 if I could do it in there, then you could do it out here
00:05:19 because that's the power of the message of the coffee bean
00:05:21 is that life is a pot of boiling water.
00:05:23 It doesn't have to be prison.
00:05:25 Life is a pot of boiling water, and you've got three choices
00:05:27 how you want to handle that, and we're going to get into that today.
00:05:29 Yes, we are. So welcome to the show.
00:05:31 Man, I'm excited.
00:05:33 And by the way, in April when I said you had to come on the show,
00:05:35 I had not filmed one episode for this show yet.
00:05:38 - You're kidding me. - I'm not.
00:05:40 I had some of the biggest names that people know as guests,
00:05:42 and I had already had them all booked, and I realized after hearing you speak
00:05:46 the Jeff Fenster show, presented by Entrepreneur,
00:05:49 wasn't going to go live without Damon West as a guest,
00:05:51 and we were going to make that happen.
00:05:53 That blows me away, and I saw the wall in there that everybody signs.
00:05:56 I'm going to tell you something.
00:05:59 It was something I felt when I looked at that wall.
00:06:01 The thought went through my head is,
00:06:03 "Man, my name is going to be on that wall with some of those people, man."
00:06:05 That's one of the coolest things, man.
00:06:07 I'm still--this guy--
00:06:09 people recognize me at the airport or something like that,
00:06:11 or somebody comes to me and says, "Hey, man, I read your book,"
00:06:13 and it changed my life.
00:06:15 It blows me away because I still think I'm this guy
00:06:17 from this little small town called Port Arthur, Texas.
00:06:19 I'm like, "How do you know who I am?"
00:06:21 But it's just--I can't get over--I cannot believe this is my life.
00:06:24 I tell my wife that almost every day.
00:06:26 I can't believe this is my life, Kendall.
00:06:28 Well, you have completely changed your life.
00:06:31 And quickly, for those listening, watching,
00:06:33 in our control room--and we'll show a little video clip--
00:06:36 every guest leaves a message.
00:06:38 They sign it, and they leave a message for everyone else,
00:06:41 and it's something inspirational, some quote, etc.,
00:06:43 so that's what we're referencing.
00:06:45 I have a feeling I know what theme it's going to be,
00:06:48 and I'm really excited for it.
00:06:50 I go in there--not just when we're filming--
00:06:52 I go in there and just reread them
00:06:54 because it's just so powerful when you get some of the most successful
00:06:57 human beings in all walks of life, and they can share one sentence,
00:07:01 their name in one sentence.
00:07:03 That sentence is powerful.
00:07:05 And success leaves clues.
00:07:07 And the whole point of the show is to help everyone become successful
00:07:10 because I think success is a formula, and everybody can achieve it.
00:07:13 It doesn't matter what resources you have
00:07:15 or where you started in life or, to your point,
00:07:17 what boiling water you're in, prison to life.
00:07:20 Success is obtainable by us all.
00:07:22 We just have to figure it out.
00:07:24 And so the goal of the show is to help everybody.
00:07:26 - I love it, man. - Well, welcome.
00:07:28 So obviously everyone heard your bio already,
00:07:31 but I want to start the story because you were supposed to be
00:07:35 one of the top college football players in the country.
00:07:38 Yeah, at least in my mind I was.
00:07:40 - I mean, you were highly recruited. - I was highly recruited, yeah.
00:07:43 I was a really good quarterback.
00:07:45 As of the filming, as of the taping right now,
00:07:47 I'm one month shy of 48 years old,
00:07:49 and I can still throw a football about 65 yards.
00:07:52 I wish I could throw a ball with Drew right now.
00:07:54 But no, I can still chunk the ball, and I was a great quarterback back then.
00:07:59 But life took a different turn for me,
00:08:03 and that's what a big part of the story is
00:08:05 because that was a big fork in the road for me when college football was over.
00:08:08 I was injured against Texas A&M in 1996, a career-ending injury against A&M.
00:08:14 And as a quarterback, playing football in Texas,
00:08:17 biggest stage there is, and Drew is a football player in Texas.
00:08:20 He talked about it on your show, about how big this is in Texas.
00:08:23 - Friday Night Lights. - Friday Night Lights.
00:08:25 That stuff's real, man. They're not making that up.
00:08:27 It's a religion in my home state.
00:08:29 My identity was wrapped up in being a college football player,
00:08:31 and when that was gone--
00:08:33 I was 20 years old, red shirt, sophomore in college.
00:08:36 When college football was gone, there was a big void in my life.
00:08:40 And Viktor Frankl, he wrote one of my favorite books I've ever read,
00:08:45 "Man's Search for Meaning." I read it when I was in prison.
00:08:47 "Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor Frankl, very good book.
00:08:50 But he talks about this thing called the existential vacuum.
00:08:53 Your existence is into a vacuum now,
00:08:55 and so something has got to fill that void.
00:08:58 And what I filled that void with when football was gone,
00:09:01 my identity was gone, was drugs, alcohol.
00:09:04 Got into a lot of partying, cocaine, ecstasy pills.
00:09:08 - What was your favorite drug? - My drug of choice back then was cocaine.
00:09:11 But alcohol was the main thing.
00:09:13 That's the thing that dogged me out my entire life.
00:09:16 I started drinking when I was 10.
00:09:18 The first time I ever had a beer, I was 10 years old, man,
00:09:20 and I remember the feeling from that first beer.
00:09:23 And this is one of the problems that dogged me out throughout my life.
00:09:26 I try alcohol when I'm 10. I smoke my first joint when I'm 12.
00:09:30 I had a lot of bad behaviors, but I had bad belief systems.
00:09:34 And our belief systems are so important, Jeff,
00:09:36 because your belief system tells you how to act, how to respond,
00:09:39 how to navigate your way through life.
00:09:41 And if you have good belief systems, you make good choices in life.
00:09:44 But when you have a bad belief system, it dogs you out.
00:09:46 You make a lot of bad choices.
00:09:48 But my bad belief systems, starting at a young age,
00:09:51 I didn't really pay the consequence for them because I could throw a football.
00:09:54 God blessed me with a cannon for a right arm.
00:09:56 And so my bad belief systems didn't catch up to me
00:09:59 until later on in life when all that football was gone.
00:10:02 - You lost your identity. - Lost my identity.
00:10:04 But my belief system was still there. My bad belief system was still there.
00:10:07 And that's why I turned to drugs so many years later
00:10:09 because that's what I did before.
00:10:11 And I just--we fall back on our bad belief systems.
00:10:14 I can tell you this.
00:10:16 When I was in prison--and living in prison was like living in a giant Petri dish.
00:10:20 It was like a giant sociological experiment that I was in every day.
00:10:23 I'd wake up in it.
00:10:25 Basically, I started running research in there.
00:10:27 I just started asking guys. I wanted to know more about them.
00:10:29 And you find out that 100% of the guys that I'm in prison with,
00:10:33 there's 3,000 people in this unit in Texas that I'm on.
00:10:36 One of the worst--one of the most difficult prisons in Texas.
00:10:39 One of the most difficult prisons in America, the Marks-Dawes Unit.
00:10:42 3,000 men in this unit.
00:10:44 All 3,000 men were plagued by bad belief systems.
00:10:46 So everybody around you has got this bad belief system.
00:10:48 And so I'm understanding in there that I've got to rewire my brain.
00:10:52 I've got to change the way I think
00:10:54 or I'm going to be another one of these statistics
00:10:56 that keeps coming back to this thing in my whole life.
00:10:58 I've got to figure out a way to think better.
00:11:00 You're thinking is so important. Your thoughts control your actions.
00:11:03 So that was something that dogged me out.
00:11:06 But I was a very functional addict.
00:11:08 I graduated college at 99--
00:11:10 While using heavy drugs?
00:11:12 Yeah, while partying and doing coke.
00:11:14 I didn't--I mean, I barely graduated college.
00:11:16 I had like a 1.85 GPA.
00:11:18 D equals diploma.
00:11:20 Yeah, D equals diploma, brother.
00:11:21 And that's what I had for my bachelor's.
00:11:23 Now, later on in life, when we get a master's,
00:11:25 it would be a whole different story because I'm in a whole different place.
00:11:28 In 1999, I graduate.
00:11:30 I go off to work in the United States Congress in Washington, D.C.
00:11:33 I work in Congress.
00:11:34 I work for a guy running for president.
00:11:36 2004, I move back to Dallas.
00:11:38 Well, hold on because I think that's an important one.
00:11:40 When you say you work in Congress,
00:11:42 can you elaborate like specifically what was your job in Congress?
00:11:45 Yeah, I started out as a staff assistant for Congressman Gene Green from Houston,
00:11:48 a Democrat from Houston named Gene Green.
00:11:51 I started out as a staff assistant.
00:11:52 Then I went on to be a legislative assistant for him.
00:11:55 And I left Congress right after September 11th happened.
00:11:59 And September 11th was a big shift.
00:12:01 In my book, "The Change Agent," I talk about this,
00:12:03 that one of the things that plagued me--that didn't plague me but bothered me so much--
00:12:09 is that right after September 11th, we had what happened only twice in my lifetime,
00:12:17 was a unanimous agreed vote on an issue.
00:12:21 I think there was one holdout, a woman, a congressman from California named Barbara Lee.
00:12:26 Don't ask me how I remember all this stuff.
00:12:28 Barbara Lee was the only holdout to give Bush the war powers to go in and get Osama bin Laden.
00:12:35 But it ended up being Saddam Hussein, Iraq, and all this other stuff.
00:12:37 Weapons of mass destruction.
00:12:38 Weapons of mass destruction, all this.
00:12:40 But I remember seeing that happen.
00:12:41 I remember losing my faith in the system because you had a unanimous vote.
00:12:45 Unanimous votes are bad, Jeff.
00:12:47 Anytime you have all these people agreeing on one thing, that's not good.
00:12:49 We need debate.
00:12:50 We need division.
00:12:51 We need people pushing back against stuff.
00:12:53 The only other time in my life that I've seen a unanimous vote?
00:12:56 COVID relief.
00:12:58 Let's just unanimously agree to give away $10 trillion or $7 trillion, whatever it is.
00:13:02 No, that's not a great idea.
00:13:04 Let's have some debate about this.
00:13:05 Somebody should be against it.
00:13:07 Yeah, let's put some parameters on it.
00:13:09 One of the things that I saw--and we won't get bogged down in this--
00:13:13 but, look, I do a lot of work inside the prison system.
00:13:15 An inmate in a California prison saw that this bill had been passed that says every American is entitled to whatever it was--$1,500, $1,800.
00:13:24 And he sued, and every inmate in America that was in prisons also got a check for $2,000 or whatever it is, $1,800.
00:13:32 When this money flooded the prison system, it flooded the prison system with drugs too.
00:13:36 Of course.
00:13:37 Because contraband that comes in--
00:13:38 They're not buying TVs.
00:13:39 Yeah, they're not buying TVs.
00:13:40 What is a person in prison going to do with another $2,000?
00:13:42 They're going to buy K2.
00:13:43 They're going to buy a bunch of dope and stuff like that.
00:13:45 And, unfortunately, in the prison system, a lot of this stuff gets in through the correctional officers.
00:13:51 Some of it comes in through visitation.
00:13:54 People throw it over the fence sometimes.
00:13:56 But when that kind of money hit the prison system, the prison systems in America are flooded with drugs.
00:14:00 Right now, as we're recording this, every prison in Texas is locked down.
00:14:04 The statewide lockdown just happened.
00:14:06 They had five homicides in the past month in Texas prisons.
00:14:10 A homicide in prison, man, that's a big deal.
00:14:12 I think there was one the whole time I was in prison.
00:14:14 That's it?
00:14:15 Where another inmate kills another inmate.
00:14:17 Yeah.
00:14:18 You have a lot of stabbings.
00:14:19 You have a lot of beatings.
00:14:20 But a homicide--
00:14:21 You don't end up killing you with a stabbing?
00:14:23 No, not a lot of times, man.
00:14:24 You can survive a stabbing.
00:14:25 I never got stabbed.
00:14:26 But you can survive a stabbing.
00:14:27 Depends where you get stabbed.
00:14:28 Depends where you get stabbed.
00:14:29 Is the intention not to kill with the stabbing in prison?
00:14:33 Sometimes the intention to kill--a lot of times the intention is to let you know who's got the power.
00:14:37 And so whenever a guy--a hit is put out on somebody, they call it an SOS in prison.
00:14:43 It's called smash on sight.
00:14:45 And if there's an SOS put out by a gang, that means the first gang member--
00:14:49 let's say it's the Aryan Brotherhood that puts out an SOS on somebody.
00:14:52 This means that everyone in the Aryan Brotherhood knows that if I'm the first one to see this guy,
00:14:56 I've got to smash him on sight.
00:14:57 So you do whatever you can to hurt him, whatever.
00:14:59 And a lot of times it doesn't result in a death.
00:15:02 But in the Texas prison system, they had five homicides in the last month or two,
00:15:07 and it's all around drugs.
00:15:09 These drugs have flooded in the prison system because of the COVID relief money.
00:15:12 Again, another unanimous vote.
00:15:13 So I didn't want to get bogged down in that too much.
00:15:15 But when I left Congress, I went to go be a fundraiser, a political fundraiser.
00:15:20 And that's when I went to work for Dick Gephardt, was running for president of the United States.
00:15:24 He was a congressman from Missouri.
00:15:27 And Dick drops out of the race in 2004.
00:15:30 And so I'd travel with Dick all over America raising money for him in a presidential campaign.
00:15:35 And I had this giant book of all these big donors.
00:15:38 Well, my buddy of my dad's named Charlie Eldemeyer was the head broker at UBS in Dallas.
00:15:44 And my dad was talking to Charlie and said, "Damon's just getting out of being a fundraiser."
00:15:49 And Charlie was interested.
00:15:50 He's like, "What kind of people do you raise money from?"
00:15:53 Billionaires, millionaires.
00:15:54 So I got a job at UBS because I have this book of business.
00:15:58 So there I am at UBS studying to be a stockbroker in 2004.
00:16:02 And I'm back in the Dallas party scene.
00:16:04 And at that time, I'm a partier, man.
00:16:06 I'm exploring every vice I can in 2004.
00:16:11 And I was passed out of sleep at work one day.
00:16:13 This other stockbroker comes up. He sees me sleeping, and he wakes me up.
00:16:16 He's visibly shaking. He's like, "Damon, wake up."
00:16:18 He said, "You can't sleep on this job. The markets are open. You're messing with people's money."
00:16:22 He said, "They'll fire you, man."
00:16:23 He said, "Come on down to the parking garage. I got something that'll pick you up."
00:16:27 So I follow this guy down to the parking garage.
00:16:28 We get into this nice little sports car.
00:16:30 He's a broker. He's got money.
00:16:32 And he hands me a glass pipe with crystal rocks in it.
00:16:35 "Jeff, I've never seen a glass pipe before."
00:16:37 I'm like, "Man, what is that?"
00:16:38 And he's like, "Whoa."
00:16:39 He said, "Just relax, man. It's crystal meth."
00:16:41 He said, "You're going to love this stuff."
00:16:43 Truer words had never been spoken, man.
00:16:45 I fell in love with crystal meth that day.
00:16:48 Because meth is the most evil, most destructive, most addictive drug ever created by man.
00:16:52 It's made in a lab. It's made to get you hooked.
00:16:55 I smoked it one time.
00:16:57 Instantly hooked. Just like that.
00:16:59 And 18 months later, I went from working on Wall Street to living on the streets of Dallas.
00:17:03 I was homeless, man.
00:17:04 Because of crystal meth.
00:17:05 Because of crystal meth.
00:17:06 So you just couldn't make enough money to pay for your habit?
00:17:08 Evicted.
00:17:09 Well, I mean, I burned through all my money.
00:17:11 I was unemployable.
00:17:12 I got fired from UBS within six weeks.
00:17:14 I couldn't pass the Series 7, Series 63 exams to be a broker.
00:17:18 They fired me.
00:17:19 Was the guy who gave it to you functioning meth?
00:17:21 Functioning meth.
00:17:22 Or was he a drug dealer?
00:17:23 He was just a--no, he wasn't a dealer.
00:17:25 He connected me to his dealer.
00:17:27 The day I got fired, the first thing I went and did was go to the dealer and get some more meth.
00:17:31 Called the dealer, told him, "I got off work early today, man. You busy right now?"
00:17:34 "Oh, come on by."
00:17:36 Got off work early. I got fired, man.
00:17:38 My whole life is changing in 2004, but all I care about is getting high.
00:17:42 Addicts--and I say "we" because I'm an addict, all right?
00:17:47 But I have a long-term program recovery that I work called AA.
00:17:50 That's what I'll be doing the rest of my life is AA.
00:17:52 I go to my meetings. I got a sponsor. I work my steps.
00:17:55 I believe that every addict has to have a program recovery because it gives us tools to live a normal life by.
00:18:01 So addicts give up their goals to meet their behaviors.
00:18:06 That's what we do.
00:18:07 Addicts give up their goals to meet their behavior.
00:18:10 That's what addicts do.
00:18:11 And here's the deal. I'm saying this to your audience.
00:18:13 Addicts don't have to be drugs and alcohol.
00:18:16 Addicts can be food, money, clothing, shopping, sex, pornography, the Internet, Instagram.
00:18:24 You can be addicted to just about anything.
00:18:26 And I think a lot of people have these tendencies towards some addictions, especially the phones.
00:18:31 But addicts give up their goals to meet their behaviors.
00:18:34 Functional people, driven people, successful people in life, they give up bad behaviors to meet their goals.
00:18:39 And that's a big wedge that you see in life.
00:18:41 I see that happening with so many people in life.
00:18:44 In 2004, I was the drug addict.
00:18:47 That is the most articulate explanation of that I've ever heard because I'm thinking about how you just said that.
00:18:53 And you are exactly right.
00:18:55 That's addiction in a nutshell.
00:18:56 And anybody can be addicted to just about anything in life.
00:18:59 And when you see people giving up the things that are most important to them, I'll use the phone as an example.
00:19:07 You have a limited amount of time on this earth.
00:19:09 And if you have children, you have a limited amount of time with them.
00:19:12 Parents that are on their phones and they're not paying attention to their kids, kids that are on their phones and they're not being regulated by their parents or anything, that time is gone, man.
00:19:20 Once time is gone, it's gone for good.
00:19:21 All the money in the world won't buy one more second of that stuff.
00:19:23 If you feel like that that phone is encroaching on the time that you have with your children, put the phone down.
00:19:29 And it's tough, man.
00:19:31 The phone's like a drug.
00:19:33 It releases endorphins and serotonin inside of your brain.
00:19:36 It releases the trigger centers to make us feel good.
00:19:38 You're checking to see if you got likes, how many views, stuff like that.
00:19:41 So yeah, the phone can be one of the most addictive things that people have.
00:19:45 And it's scary in the sense that kids run around with these things.
00:19:49 It's like a bomb in their pockets.
00:19:51 They're walking around with a bomb.
00:19:53 So I started giving everything away.
00:19:56 I'm homeless.
00:19:57 You say giving everything away in exchange for drugs?
00:20:00 I call it giving it away because when I say addicts give up their goals, no one took anything from me.
00:20:06 No one came up and put a gun in my face and said, "Give me your job. Give me your car. Give me your home."
00:20:10 But during that downward spiral, before you were homeless,
00:20:13 did you not have any of those moments where friends, family stepped in and said, "Damon"?
00:20:18 Oh yeah.
00:20:19 My mom and my dad, they're six hours away down in southeast Texas where I grew up, right?
00:20:23 And they know something's wrong, but they can't put their finger on it.
00:20:26 And every time they called me, they were, "What are you doing for a living? How are you making a living?"
00:20:29 And I'm like, "I would lie to them."
00:20:31 I made up a story. That's another thing addicts do. We lie.
00:20:34 Addicts lie. Addicts are very manipulative.
00:20:36 And so I'd make up stories.
00:20:38 I'd do it for a limousine company. I'd do it in marketing for this group over here.
00:20:41 They couldn't put their finger on what was wrong, but they knew something was wrong.
00:20:45 But my mom wanted me to move back home.
00:20:48 I'm moving back home because my dope dealer's not back home.
00:20:51 And once I was gone from--once I gave everything away, my job, my home, my car, all that,
00:20:58 I was living on the streets.
00:21:00 Like legitimately sleeping on the streets.
00:21:02 I've slept in park benches. I've slept in buildings that were--
00:21:05 otherwise occupied, like an abandoned building or a construction site.
00:21:08 Slept a lot in dope houses and places where other meth addicts were.
00:21:13 This was for about two months is when I'm out there transitional.
00:21:17 I don't have any place to live.
00:21:18 And I finally move in with a bunch of other dope fiends.
00:21:21 And I still call that homeless because it's not my home.
00:21:23 I'm not paying rent there. It's just a bunch of other dope fiends.
00:21:25 It's a dope house.
00:21:27 But I became a criminal at this point to fund my addiction because I've given all this stuff away,
00:21:30 but I've still got this raging addiction to methamphetamines.
00:21:34 And that's when I became a criminal.
00:21:35 And it started off with petty crimes.
00:21:37 It started off with shoplifting, breaking into cars, breaking into storage units.
00:21:41 Then it escalated to the serious crime of burglary.
00:21:44 And a burglary is when you break into someone's house.
00:21:48 And my victims, Jeff--I tell people this everywhere I go--
00:21:52 I didn't just steal people's property when I've broken their homes.
00:21:55 I stole something way more valuable from them than their--I stole their sense of security.
00:22:00 And I don't know if they can get that back.
00:22:02 They'll live with that for the rest of their lives.
00:22:05 But after three years of committing property crimes against the people of Dallas--
00:22:08 and the property crimes I committed, it was a bunch of other meth addicts, right?
00:22:12 It was the burglary crew, and I was the head of the whole burglary crew,
00:22:15 the ringleader of about a dozen other meth addicts.
00:22:17 You just came up with this organized--
00:22:19 I met this other dope--I met this other guy at a dope house, a guy named Dustin.
00:22:23 He became my partner in crime.
00:22:25 And Dustin and I started figuring out ways that we could break into these places using--
00:22:30 they called it a signature crime because of the way we got into the deadbolts.
00:22:33 And Dustin figured out this way into a deadbolt,
00:22:35 and it was just really quick and easy to get into places.
00:22:38 To literally break through a deadbolt?
00:22:41 Yeah. I found a flaw in a deadbolt.
00:22:43 I'm not even going to tell it on the show.
00:22:45 No, gosh no.
00:22:46 But Dustin found the flaw, and I exploited the flaw.
00:22:50 But the burglaries went on in this part of Dallas that I was living in called Uptown.
00:22:55 Uptown's a really nice part of Dallas.
00:22:57 And it's the place where I lived when I was a stockbroker, trendy, Uptown, Dallas.
00:23:03 And the burglaries go on in Uptown Dallas.
00:23:05 They spread out through a lot of Dallas.
00:23:07 But I have all these other dope fiends working with us on this thing.
00:23:10 Like I've got a box truck that we use--so the burglaries.
00:23:16 So here's, like, in a nutshell, like one of the first things I did--
00:23:21 one of the first places I broke into was a post office,
00:23:23 and I stole a mailman uniform because I'm like, you know, I'm still in my mind.
00:23:26 I'm like, hey, I don't want to get caught doing this, but I know I'm going to do this.
00:23:30 So I stole a mailman uniform, and I became like a ghost.
00:23:33 I was a mailman in different neighborhoods.
00:23:35 I would watch and see when the real mailman would leave,
00:23:37 and then I'd go around and, you know, into these condo buildings and stuff like that.
00:23:41 You couldn't roam around freely around neighborhoods dressed as the mailman.
00:23:44 So I tried to be a chameleon in every neighborhood I was in.
00:23:49 I'd find places that were empty, houses that were unoccupied.
00:23:53 And then the group of the other meth addicts would come in and empty the place out.
00:23:59 And these burglaries went on for about three years in Dallas.
00:24:03 Under your--
00:24:05 Yeah, and that's what Dallas ended up getting me on was organized crime.
00:24:09 Everybody right now in America is talking about RICO.
00:24:12 I went down for RICO. I went down for RICO as the ringleader too.
00:24:16 So let me tell you how RICO works, and this is what's going on right now.
00:24:19 Organized crime works like this, and Texas' organized crime law is just like Georgia.
00:24:25 So they have a group of people they call the law of parties.
00:24:29 The whole party's out there. They're all committing these crimes.
00:24:32 The guy at the top is the one they want, and all they've got to prove with the guy at the top is that you committed two crimes,
00:24:37 and all this crime's free.
00:24:38 If they can just prove that you committed two crimes, they can make it the law of parties,
00:24:42 and every crime that everybody else committed goes onto YouTube.
00:24:45 It's the most vague criminal statute there is.
00:24:48 Whenever I was in prison, I was trying to fight my conviction and trying to get back in the courts.
00:24:52 So I really peeled apart the organized crime statute and was trying to fight it,
00:24:56 but no court in the world is going to let you overturn an organized crime case.
00:24:59 That's how they get the big mob.
00:25:01 That's how they get the big mob, guys, and that's what they did.
00:25:03 They made a very vague criminal statute that says if I can get all these other people that are in a gang--
00:25:08 they use it for fighting criminal street gangs too--
00:25:11 get all these other people committing all their crimes, the guy at the very top,
00:25:14 if I could just show he committed two crimes and all these other people committed crimes
00:25:17 at the top, then I can get him for every crime everybody committed.
00:25:20 When I sat through my trial, Jeff, I sat through my trial.
00:25:23 There were crimes that I committed, and I was guilty of everything, right?
00:25:26 But there's other crimes that I sat through that I was like, "I wasn't even there at that crime scene.
00:25:30 I don't even know about that burglary," right?
00:25:32 But it was because all the other people in the crime's free, they were committing crimes,
00:25:35 and they put them all on me.
00:25:37 How did they catch you?
00:25:39 So my partner in crime, Dustin, this is July 30, 2008.
00:25:45 I'm sitting around this little rundown apartment in Dallas,
00:25:47 and I'm sitting on this little ratty old couch.
00:25:50 I've got my dope dealer. His name is Tex. He's sitting next to me.
00:25:53 Ten days before this, Dustin was picked up by the Dallas Police Department in a stolen car.
00:25:58 And so, look, I know how crime works, man.
00:26:01 Everybody talks. They got him in custody.
00:26:03 I know what's the amount of time before they get to me, and I'm telling Tex this.
00:26:06 "Tex, you don't want to be here right now, man. Give me the dope. Get out of here."
00:26:09 And just as I'm telling Tex this, the window on my right blows out and shatters.
00:26:12 Flashbang grenade comes through the window.
00:26:14 This thing blows up in my face, bright white light, loud noise.
00:26:17 When I came to, when I can see and hear again, there's a cop standing over me in full SWAT riot gear.
00:26:22 His boot is on my chest. The barrel of an assault rifle is digging in my eye socket.
00:26:25 And he's screaming at the top of his lungs, "Don't move! Don't move!"
00:26:28 And I'm like, "Man, don't worry. Don't worry."
00:26:32 And one of the cops screamed out loud, "We got him! We got the Uptown Burglar!"
00:26:36 And that was it, man. That was the day I went down.
00:26:38 July 30, 2008, I went down for the Uptown Burglaries,
00:26:41 and that was the end of the Uptown Burglaries because they had the mastermind of the whole thing
00:26:45 zipped tight on the floor of a dirty old apartment.
00:26:47 And when they took me to Dallas County Jail, I'll never forget, they set my bond at $1.4 million.
00:26:53 And man, there's 9,000 people in Dallas County Jail. It's one of the biggest jails in America.
00:26:57 No one else, not murderers, not child molesters, not rapists, had a bond of $1.4 million.
00:27:02 And my crimes were property crimes, Jeff. No one was ever home.
00:27:05 I never saw my victims. They never saw me. No one was physically hurt.
00:27:08 No weapons were used.
00:27:10 But Dallas County sent me this signal with that bond, "You're not getting out of this one
00:27:14 because we're going to take you to a trial to make an example out of you."
00:27:16 And they did. Ten months later, I go to this trial for organized crime.
00:27:20 The trial lasted six days. Six days is a long trial where no one got hurt, you know?
00:27:25 - Did you have a public defender? - No. My family went and got me two paid attorneys.
00:27:30 - Did you plead not guilty? - Plead not guilty.
00:27:33 White, middle-class guy. Never been in trouble before.
00:27:35 Probation is on the table, right?
00:27:37 I'm thinking I'm going to get--and I've got two paid attorneys.
00:27:40 You know, the odds are if I don't get probation, I'm not going to get much time, right?
00:27:44 Because that's what the numbers say.
00:27:46 Man, after that six-day trial, the jury went to deliberate for ten minutes.
00:27:50 Ten minutes. They knew what they were going to--
00:27:52 - They had been done with that trial long before. - Yeah, three days ago you were guilty.
00:27:56 Yeah, that's it, man. So they brought me back in the courtroom from that recess,
00:27:59 and one of my lawyers looked at me. She said, "Brace yourself. This is going to be bad."
00:28:02 And I'm like, "How bad?"
00:28:04 She said, "While you were gone for that brief ten minutes, the jury sent a note into the judge
00:28:08 wanting to know if they could give you life without parole."
00:28:11 That got my attention, Jeff, because life without parole is a capital punishment.
00:28:15 That's for crimes where people get killed.
00:28:18 - Was that even available? - No.
00:28:20 The judge told them you can give them life, but not life without parole.
00:28:23 And that is what they did, Jeff. They gave me life in prison.
00:28:27 65 years is what they sentenced me to, and anything over 60 in Texas is a life sentence.
00:28:32 The jury gave me a life sentence that day.
00:28:34 When you heard that, what went through your mind in that moment?
00:28:37 Oh, man, it was like being kicked in the gut.
00:28:39 Man, they threw me away like, "Oh, man, I'm going to die in prison," kind of thing.
00:28:43 And things like how-- politics was once a big thing in my life.
00:28:46 I'll never vote again because felons can't vote, right?
00:28:49 Weird things go through your head.
00:28:51 But immediately, they're getting me out of there.
00:28:53 They're handcuffing me. They're getting me out of there.
00:28:56 And as they're pulling me out, I'm lock-eyed as my mom across the court.
00:28:58 I'm like, "Mom, I'm sorry. I'm sorry."
00:29:00 Are you crying? Is she crying?
00:29:02 She's stunned, and I'm stunned too.
00:29:04 I'm kind of in shock still. They're in shock.
00:29:06 I mean, their faces--I mean--and I know that I've broken my parents, man.
00:29:10 Because, I mean, imagine being a parent.
00:29:12 You hear your kid gets sentenced to life in prison.
00:29:14 I mean, it's just--and I screamed it across the court.
00:29:16 I'm like, "Mom, I'm sorry. I'm sorry."
00:29:18 And so they whisked me out of there.
00:29:20 They put me in this little side room. It's got a bulletproof glass.
00:29:22 They told me to wait, and a few minutes later, my mom and my dad are escorted in
00:29:25 to the other side of the glass.
00:29:26 They're going to give my parents one last visit with me before I go to prison.
00:29:30 And my dad--Jeff, my dad can't even talk.
00:29:32 He is in stunned disbelief that his son, who once had all this promise of life,
00:29:36 just got a life sentence in prison.
00:29:38 So my mom, this strong-willed Christian woman, this nurse,
00:29:41 she does all the talking that day, and she's like,
00:29:43 "Hey, debts in life demand to be paid,
00:29:46 and you just got hit with one hell of a bill from the state of Texas.
00:29:49 But you did everything they said you did, so you have to go and pay the debt to society.
00:29:53 You owe Texas that debt.
00:29:55 But you owe your father and I a debt, too.
00:29:57 We gave you all the opportunity and love and support to be anything in life,
00:30:00 and this is the path you chose. That's not going to work.
00:30:03 We raised you in a giant melty pot called Port Arthur, Texas.
00:30:06 So here's the debt.
00:30:08 When you go to prison, you will not get in one of these white hate groups,
00:30:11 one of these Aryan Brotherhood-type gangs, because you're scared,
00:30:13 because you're the minority in there.
00:30:14 You were never raised to be a racist. You're not going to start now."
00:30:17 She said, "You will not get any tattoos while you're inside that prison."
00:30:20 And, man, I showed people my skin, man, and I got no ink.
00:30:23 No ink. Almost a decade in prison, no ink, man.
00:30:26 She said, "No gangs, no tattoos.
00:30:28 You come back as the man we raised, or don't come back to us at all."
00:30:33 Man, I am floored, because I don't even know how to do this, right?
00:30:36 Because everything that's around me in county jail tells me,
00:30:39 "Man, you're going to be tatted up. You're going to be in a gang."
00:30:42 And so I got two months before the prison bus comes to pick me up,
00:30:46 and every guy in county jail is telling me, "You've got to get into a gang, Wes.
00:30:48 You can't do this out of the gang. You won't survive."
00:30:51 But there was this one guy who was so different, man,
00:30:53 this older black guy named Mr. Jackson.
00:30:55 And Mr. Jackson, he's a career criminal, man.
00:30:58 He's been in and out of prison his entire life,
00:31:00 but he was the most positive guy I've ever met in my life.
00:31:02 This guy had a smile on his face everywhere he went.
00:31:04 How old was he?
00:31:05 You know, I had him in his late 50s, early 60s,
00:31:08 and then later on in life I would find out who he was
00:31:10 and find out his real age and know that I was really close to where I pegged him on the age.
00:31:14 But, yeah, he had graying hair, and he was a Muslim guy.
00:31:18 He wore a kufi everywhere.
00:31:21 So he'd always come up to me every morning, kind of check on me,
00:31:24 and pump me up and pick me up.
00:31:26 So this morning, you know, I'm running out of time.
00:31:29 The prison bus is going to be coming to pick me up soon.
00:31:31 And so he's like, "Listen, here's the deal.
00:31:33 Here's how you're going to survive prison."
00:31:35 And he's telling me what prison is going to be like.
00:31:37 He's telling me, "Look, when you walk in the door, everything's about race.
00:31:40 Everybody divides in their own racial group in prison.
00:31:43 The white gang is going to get the first dibs on you because you're white.
00:31:45 If you survive the white gangs, then you fight the black gangs.
00:31:48 The white gangs send the black gangs after you.
00:31:50 And so you have to survive that.
00:31:52 If you can survive all that, you'll earn the right to walk alone."
00:31:54 And he's telling me, "The strongest man in prison walks alone, doesn't join a gang."
00:31:58 He told me the truth about fighting, the truth I've shared with every audience,
00:32:02 especially entrepreneurs.
00:32:03 He said, "You don't have to win all your fights, but you do have to fight all your fights."
00:32:07 He said, "Some days you're going to win, some days you're going to lose."
00:32:09 He said, "It's okay to lose. Just get back up and keep fighting."
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00:32:42 Hey there. It's your host, Jeff Fenster, and I have something very exciting to share with you today.
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00:33:35 And I remember you saying that on stage, and that was one of the moments that I, at that moment, I was like,
00:33:42 "Me and Damon West are going to have to have a conversation."
00:33:45 But you felt that. Like you said, it touches people in different ways.
00:33:48 You have been there. You've been on the ground before and got back up.
00:33:51 Everybody has.
00:33:52 Yeah!
00:33:53 Everybody gets knocked to the ground.
00:33:54 Yeah.
00:33:55 And what you said, the way, and I repeated that to my team, when they said, "Damon West's coming,"
00:33:58 I was telling a little bit about your story. I said, "You don't have to win every fight. You just have to fight every fight."
00:34:03 There is so much power in that sentence.
00:34:06 100%.
00:34:07 It gives me chills just even saying it right now with you.
00:34:10 It gave me permission to lose. And you need permission to lose because no one wins everything, man.
00:34:16 But here's the thing. No one cares about your wins and losses. He's telling me about prison.
00:34:20 No one cares about wins and losses. Everybody wants to see a fight.
00:34:23 They call it a free show as opposed to pay-per-view, right?
00:34:25 Right.
00:34:26 So they call it a free show. And people in life, they don't care if you win or, they don't count your wins and losses.
00:34:32 They got other things going on in their lives. They're not paying that much attention to you.
00:34:34 But what they do watch to see, does he or she get back up when the adversity hits?
00:34:39 Because you see those people like, "Oh, that's a sad story of a sad person."
00:34:42 Yeah. Business goes out of, business fails, relationship fails, drug issue, car accident, bankruptcy, you name it.
00:34:50 Yeah. And those, by the way, those lessons that, those things that happen in life,
00:34:55 because all of those things can happen to you in life, divorce, bankruptcy, drug addiction,
00:35:00 lose your job, lose your family, lose your house.
00:35:02 Those things can become the perspective for you on what a bad day looks like, right?
00:35:08 So you can use that stuff. You can, that pain right there, feel your pain.
00:35:13 Pain demands to be felt. I tell people that all the time.
00:35:15 You got to feel your pain, but don't get stuck in your pain.
00:35:17 But remember that pain because when you wake up some days and you think you're having a bad day,
00:35:22 some things aren't going your way, you know, traffic sucks, whatever.
00:35:25 That's not a bad day, man. Those were bad days. You survived that. You can survive this.
00:35:29 So, but he's telling me about the racial dynamic, the fighting dynamic, and he's like,
00:35:34 "Hey, listen, man, you're like a light in a dark place. People are going to want to extinguish you.
00:35:37 You got a positive light around you, Wes. Don't lose that.
00:35:40 People are going to want to extinguish that, though. They're going to try to kill you."
00:35:42 But he said, "You can survive all this."
00:35:44 They're going to try to kill you.
00:35:45 Oh, he's like, "No doubt." He said, "And here's the thing, too.
00:35:49 I don't look like the other white guys in prison, right?
00:35:52 I didn't come from the same background as the other white guys in prison.
00:35:54 I didn't come from the same background as most people in prison.
00:35:57 When I was in prison, I could identify five variables that kind of determined whether or not
00:36:01 someone might have a negative interaction with the criminal justice system.
00:36:04 Here they are, poverty, lack of an education, lack of a family unit, race,
00:36:11 and then there was substance abuse and mental health.
00:36:13 I was an outlier for those first four, poverty, lack of an education, lack of a family, race.
00:36:18 None of those are me. Substance abuse was.
00:36:21 But of those other four, I was an outlier for, and that's where your criminal population really comes from,
00:36:25 especially those first two and three, poverty, lack of an education, lack of a family.
00:36:28 Most of the guys I was around with in prison didn't come from a nuclear family.
00:36:32 This is one of the big L's in America right now is the breakdown of the family.
00:36:36 It's growing.
00:36:37 It's terrible. It's epidemic.
00:36:39 In so many of these inner-city neighborhoods, you don't have positive male role models.
00:36:45 You have to have--boys need a positive male role model.
00:36:48 If you don't have that, you find it somewhere else in the streets, wherever.
00:36:51 And I saw a lot of that in prison, but I was an outlier, man.
00:36:55 I didn't look like anybody else. I didn't speak like anybody else.
00:36:58 I mean, what I looked like and spoke like was the man.
00:37:03 And in prison, everybody feels like the man put them in prison, right?
00:37:07 Whether you're white, black, or Asian, or Hispanic, it was the man that put you there because it's the system, right?
00:37:13 It's like, hey, I was born into a bad system.
00:37:15 I didn't have a chance in life. That's all because of the man.
00:37:17 The man is Damon West.
00:37:19 I look like the man. I speak like the man.
00:37:22 And they identified that, and now the man was locked up with them.
00:37:25 They got a chance to take out the man.
00:37:27 That's what Mr. Jackson's telling me.
00:37:29 You look and speak like the man.
00:37:31 I mean, they're going to take it out on you because I represent a higher echelon of the--
00:37:37 I came from an upper-middle-class background.
00:37:40 I went to school. I got a great education.
00:37:42 All the things they never felt like they had access to, now he's in our cell with us.
00:37:46 Let's go get his ass.
00:37:48 That's what it was.
00:37:50 So, I mean, yeah, people teed off on me, man.
00:37:53 But Jackson's telling me that.
00:37:55 But then he tells me, he's like, "Listen, let's break it down a different way."
00:37:58 And this is when he shares with me one of the most important lessons I've ever learned in life.
00:38:01 He said, "Prison's like a pot of boiling water, and you have three choices how you want to respond.
00:38:06 You can be like the carrot that becomes soft, the egg that becomes hard in the boiling water,
00:38:11 or the coffee bean which changes the pot of boiling water into a pot of coffee."
00:38:15 And I remember where I was in the jail cell when he told me that
00:38:20 and how I felt like, "Wow, that was empowering."
00:38:23 He just broke it down for me.
00:38:25 I've got three choices, and the choice is mine.
00:38:27 That was the empowering part.
00:38:29 I could choose. I could be the carrot. I could be the egg. I could be the coffee bean.
00:38:33 But the choice was mine, and I could choose to be this coffee bean.
00:38:36 And he said the coffee bean was the only thing that changes the water
00:38:38 because the power's inside the coffee bean, just like the power's inside you.
00:38:42 And he tells me that everything else in life will be changed by the water.
00:38:46 Carrots are changed by the water. Eggs are changed by the water, but not a coffee bean.
00:38:49 A coffee bean's the only thing that changes the water.
00:38:51 He said the coffee bean is the change agent, which is the name of my autobiography, "The Change Agent."
00:38:56 I got that from Mr. Jackson.
00:38:58 But he's telling me if you want to come back on the other side of this thing
00:39:00 and be someone your parents recognize, you have to be like that coffee bean.
00:39:03 And in the last four words he ever said to me--and he's passed away now.
00:39:09 I've found him. We'll talk about that later, about how I found him later on in life
00:39:12 or how he actually found me from the grave.
00:39:16 The last four words he ever said to me, he said, "Be a coffee bean."
00:39:21 And man, those four words were powerful, Jeff, because it was like, "Man, I can do this.
00:39:26 I can be a coffee bean, and if I keep the power inside me, I'm not going to just survive this.
00:39:31 I'll thrive inside that prison."
00:39:32 And that's the power of the story when we're around telling it.
00:39:35 I want everybody in the audience to know that the power's inside them, too.
00:39:37 It's not what's going on in their communities at home, not in the state they live in,
00:39:40 the crazy politics or social problems this country is facing right now.
00:39:44 It's not on social media, not on the stuff they call news.
00:39:47 It's in you. And if you keep the power inside you, then you can survive.
00:39:52 You don't just survive this. You thrive in this environment, too.
00:39:55 I know that for a fact because I took the coffee bean message to the biggest pot of boiling water there is,
00:39:59 a supermax prison in Texas.
00:40:01 I go all over the world, man, and people all over the world tell me
00:40:04 that their biggest fear in life is to go to prison.
00:40:06 And I had to go in there because I had to go do my time.
00:40:09 I broke the social contract. I deserve to go to prison.
00:40:11 There's no victim here. I did everything. I'm supposed to go to prison.
00:40:15 But I went to that prison, and it was the hardest thing I've ever been through.
00:40:18 It was a place that was devoid of hope.
00:40:20 That's why prison is such a dangerous and dark place because there's no hope in there.
00:40:23 And when there's a void of hope, something's going to fill that void.
00:40:26 It's usually something negative, bad, evil.
00:40:28 -Hate. -Hate.
00:40:29 Hate corrodes the containers contained in it.
00:40:31 It's one of the problems this country faces right now.
00:40:33 There's so much hate that comes through us. It comes through us through our devices,
00:40:37 these smartphones that make us dumb, these smart TVs that make us dumber.
00:40:40 We sit around, and we watch this stuff they call news.
00:40:44 But it's not news. It's negative entertainment,
00:40:46 people telling you to fear everybody around you,
00:40:48 people telling you what group to be afraid of,
00:40:51 breaking us down into groups.
00:40:53 And the problem is right now this hate is corroding us from the inside out.
00:40:57 I mean, we live in the greatest country in the history of the world, Jeff.
00:41:00 The only thing greater than America is America's potential.
00:41:03 But we can't reach our potential as a country if the citizens are filled with hate.
00:41:08 Because I lived in a world where hate controls everything.
00:41:11 And, you know, prison in a microcosm can look like what society looks like
00:41:18 if you take the guardrails off of society.
00:41:20 Because in prison, the inmates run the asylum,
00:41:22 and every inmate in there wants it to be about race.
00:41:24 That's exactly-- Jackson was spot on.
00:41:26 The rec yard, where I would eventually go out to earn some respect
00:41:29 because I'm an athlete, I'd go out there and play basketball with those guys.
00:41:32 Every sport was segregated by the color of your skin.
00:41:34 Every sport. You know, sand volleyball was just whites and Hispanics.
00:41:37 Handball, all the races could play handball.
00:41:39 But if you wanted to play a game of doubles handball,
00:41:42 your partner had to be the same skin color as you.
00:41:44 The weight stack. Just like you see in prison movies.
00:41:46 Everybody wants to push iron in prison.
00:41:48 Everybody wants to lift those weights, right?
00:41:50 So all the races get to lift weights, but if you want someone to spot you
00:41:52 or work out with you, your partner, your spotter,
00:41:55 had to be the same skin color as you.
00:41:57 You couldn't even sit down and eat a meal on the license bill
00:42:00 at a table with people of a different race.
00:42:02 Race is everything. It's like living in a different world.
00:42:05 But you see what can happen in society when the guardrails are taken off, right?
00:42:10 And you let the hate control the environment,
00:42:12 because that's what happens in prison.
00:42:14 The hate controls the environment.
00:42:16 But back to sports, Jeff.
00:42:18 I told you people love stories about sports, and I knew in prison,
00:42:21 after the first two weeks of fighting the white gangs--
00:42:24 - Every day. - Almost every day.
00:42:26 They got to give you a little time to heal up,
00:42:28 but almost every day was fighting the white gangs.
00:42:30 I probably got, in the first two months,
00:42:33 I probably got in three dozen fights, and I lost 75% of those fights.
00:42:37 But I won. I won all my fights, right?
00:42:39 - Because I showed up. - You showed up.
00:42:41 Jackson told me, "You don't have to win those fights.
00:42:43 You got to fight those fights."
00:42:45 So took two weeks to get through the white gangs.
00:42:47 After that, it was the black gangs.
00:42:49 And six weeks into prison, I'm still fighting the black gangs,
00:42:51 and I decided I'm going to go out and play some sports with these guys,
00:42:53 because I know that in America, sports is the great uniter, man.
00:42:57 Man, sports is the one thing that brings people together
00:42:59 like nothing else can in this country.
00:43:01 Before there was Martin Luther King Jr., there was this guy named Jackie Robinson.
00:43:04 Before you integrated lunch counters in the American South where I grew up,
00:43:08 you integrated locker rooms, man.
00:43:10 I know that sports can make me whole, and it did.
00:43:12 After a week of playing basketball with those guys,
00:43:14 I'd earned my right to exist,
00:43:16 and that's when I started really working on myself
00:43:18 and becoming that coffee bean.
00:43:20 But I had to find rules to live by,
00:43:22 because anything in life, you have to find principles and rules,
00:43:24 things that are non-negotiable that you're going to do consistently,
00:43:28 because consistency beats it all, man.
00:43:30 If you can get up every day and consistently do things,
00:43:32 you can take your job, your business, your family to a different level.
00:43:35 And some of these rules were like, "Hey, man, positive body language everywhere I go.
00:43:39 You're not going to see me frowning.
00:43:41 You're not going to see that you're getting to me."
00:43:43 Practicing servant leadership, man.
00:43:45 Servant leadership is the secret to life, man,
00:43:47 helping other people reach their goals.
00:43:49 When I was in prison, I couldn't take any college classes
00:43:51 because I had a college degree.
00:43:53 But what I could do is I could--
00:43:54 It wouldn't let you because you had a college degree?
00:43:56 Yeah, I already had the maximum amount of education you could get.
00:43:58 So once you have that maximum amount of education,
00:44:00 you're ineligible to get a degree in there.
00:44:02 You couldn't even just take a class?
00:44:04 I guess I could have taken a class, but they wouldn't pay for it.
00:44:07 They had different grants and stuff like that that you can apply for.
00:44:11 I'm not going to ask my parents to pay for a class for a bachelor's degree.
00:44:14 I already have one, right?
00:44:16 But I could use what I knew to teach other men how to read,
00:44:19 how to write, how to get them ready for the GED test
00:44:22 so that one day when they got out of prison,
00:44:23 they could be a better man for their families, for their kids,
00:44:25 that maybe their kids would have a better future in life.
00:44:28 So I tried to find ways to serve other people in there,
00:44:31 and that's what's really helped me in this life out here
00:44:33 because the speaking stuff that I do now, it's taken off now.
00:44:38 You look at Damon West now, and I mean, for the last three years,
00:44:41 every year it's been multimillion-dollar years of speaking,
00:44:44 but it didn't start out like that.
00:44:46 In fact, I didn't start out making any money in the speaking business.
00:44:49 What I started out doing was knowing that I had a story that was powerful,
00:44:53 could impact people in a positive way,
00:44:55 and I knew I had to get in front of audiences to serve people with it.
00:44:58 And so I would go out and just speak anywhere I could for free.
00:45:02 And one of the things about doing that too,
00:45:04 people ask me all the time about what they want to be.
00:45:06 "I want to be a speaker."
00:45:07 I was like, "Okay, well, first of all, do you add value?"
00:45:10 Because if you don't add value to the room you're going into,
00:45:12 you're wasting their time, you're wasting your time.
00:45:14 And second of all, what's your reason for doing this?
00:45:17 I mean, is it because you think you want to make money?
00:45:18 Let me tell you something.
00:45:19 You're not going to make money at first doing this thing.
00:45:21 This is not something you're just going to jump out the gate and start making money.
00:45:23 I mean, I made like $500 my first year doing it.
00:45:26 Most of the reps that I got when I got out of prison--
00:45:30 I got out of prison in 2015, November 16, 2015.
00:45:35 I made parole, get out.
00:45:37 I lived in my parents' spare bedroom.
00:45:39 Well, I want the audience to hear the story of you getting out of prison
00:45:43 because you weren't supposed to get out of prison.
00:45:44 No, I wasn't.
00:45:45 You were sentenced to 65 years.
00:45:47 Yeah, let's keep rolling with the story.
00:45:49 Give that, and then I want to get into the story.
00:45:50 Yeah, yeah.
00:45:51 But these rules I live by, and I get into a program of recovery,
00:45:54 and I start becoming a better person, a better man.
00:45:58 And a program of recovery taught me some things about being accountable,
00:46:01 about keeping my side of the street clean.
00:46:03 This is so important in life because we have to be accountable for ourselves.
00:46:06 And integrity.
00:46:08 And integrity is who you are when no one but God is watching you.
00:46:10 It made me understand things about control.
00:46:12 There's only four things we have control over in this life.
00:46:15 You control what you think, what you say, what you feel, and what you do.
00:46:18 And if I could focus my energy and my time, most precious resource, time, right?
00:46:23 If I focus them on those four things and not worry about the other things I don't control,
00:46:27 how much change could be impacted in my life?
00:46:30 And that's what I started doing.
00:46:31 I started really getting into this stuff, and the change was so, so great
00:46:36 that seven years and three months into prison, the parole board comes to see me.
00:46:40 And look, man, I'm up for parole because I've got a non-aggravated sentence.
00:46:44 I didn't hurt anybody physically, so I can make parole earlier.
00:46:47 But I don't think I can make parole. Not at seven years.
00:46:49 That is your first opportunity.
00:46:50 First opportunity for parole. Seven years.
00:46:52 I figure I'm going to have to do about 15 years,
00:46:54 which ironically, when we're filming this right now, it's 2023.
00:46:57 2023 was a calendar year that I had circled in prison on my wall
00:47:01 of when I was getting out of prison.
00:47:03 So, I mean, I've been out for eight years now.
00:47:05 This was the year I thought I was getting out.
00:47:07 A lot of stuff is happening in eight years, brother.
00:47:09 So the parole board brings me in.
00:47:11 They're like, "Hey, listen, we don't see a lot of people like you come through prison.
00:47:15 You had it all. You lost it all. You threw it all away.
00:47:17 You became a drug addict. You became a criminal. You became a thief.
00:47:20 And a jury gave you life in prison, but you changed yourself in this prison.
00:47:24 But more importantly, you changed the entire prison around you.
00:47:27 One man was able to change this prison."
00:47:29 How did they notice that?
00:47:31 Because they talked to the wardens. They talked to everybody else.
00:47:34 They see--my criminal file, even though my criminal file is thick,
00:47:38 my institutional file of what I've done in prison,
00:47:42 it's not filled with negative reports. It's filled with good reports.
00:47:45 And also, in this parole packet--a parole packet is a packet of information
00:47:49 you can put together for parole to see how you've been.
00:47:52 I've got letters from captains that are on the prison unit.
00:47:55 People are like, "You can't ask a guard or a captain for a letter."
00:47:59 I'm like, "Why not? Has anybody ever done it?"
00:48:01 Nobody ever tried. I did. I went up and asked them.
00:48:03 And the captains that I asked were like,
00:48:05 "Yeah, I'd be honored to write a letter for you, Wes. You're a model inmate.
00:48:08 You're what we need back out in society."
00:48:10 So I went out and got those big-time letters from people that are tasked with the job of guarding me.
00:48:16 And the lady from parole was like, "We don't see letters like this.
00:48:19 We don't see support from someone like that."
00:48:21 I've got a chief of police in Beaumont, Texas, named Jimmy Singletary,
00:48:24 that wrote a letter saying, "Hey, let this guy out,
00:48:26 and I'll put him to work doing stuff in the community again."
00:48:29 And she's like--she's saying, "I've seen thousands of letters from chiefs of police,
00:48:33 thousands, that say, 'Don't ever let this guy out.'"
00:48:35 "You've got the one letter I've seen that says, 'Let this guy go.'"
00:48:39 "So you're obviously a positive force for change," she said,
00:48:41 "but I've got one question for you, and this question is going to decide
00:48:44 whether or not you go home or you stay in prison."
00:48:47 "If you could be remembered for being anything in life, anything at all,"
00:48:50 she said, "tell me what that is in just one word. Go."
00:48:53 And, man, Jeff, I just remember you being so relieved.
00:48:57 That's such an easy question. That's a softball for a coffee bean.
00:49:00 Because, man, I said, "Useful." I just want to be useful.
00:49:04 And I can be useful inside this prison, as you've already seen,
00:49:06 or I can be useful in the free world again, finding more coffee beans.
00:49:09 Useful.
00:49:10 Useful, man. Because I think every human being wants to be--
00:49:12 we all want to be useful in this life, man.
00:49:14 That's what we want to be at the core of being human.
00:49:16 Human beings want two things. We want to belong, and we want to be loved.
00:49:20 And if those two things are met, we can become the most useful person in the world.
00:49:24 But so many people I've locked up with in prison, man,
00:49:26 these men just want another chance to be useful again.
00:49:29 So they put in the work to be that useful person again.
00:49:32 So many people I meet out here, they want to start jobs.
00:49:35 They want to be an entrepreneur.
00:49:36 Entrepreneur is the big buzzword these days, right?
00:49:38 But are you useful? Are you going to do something that--
00:49:42 are you providing something that serves other people?
00:49:44 Are you providing a service that other people need?
00:49:46 But it's about willing to go in there and put in the work
00:49:51 because you have to put in the work.
00:49:53 No one can put in your work for you.
00:49:54 It's about taking action.
00:49:56 And the lady's going over all this stuff.
00:49:57 You did all these things while you were in here.
00:49:59 And then I told her, "Useful."
00:50:01 And they let me go.
00:50:03 November 16, 2015, I walk out of a Texas prison.
00:50:06 And I'm not free.
00:50:07 Like, you're not looking at a free man in front of you right now, dude.
00:50:10 I got a little more time left on parole.
00:50:12 I'm on parole until the year 2073.
00:50:16 So I got a little more time left on parole.
00:50:19 And that means every month I go see my parole officer.
00:50:21 I pee in a cup. I pay my fines. I answer her questions.
00:50:24 If I want to leave Texas like I did to come here today and see you,
00:50:26 I had to get permission from parole to come here today.
00:50:28 And I'll do that the rest of my life.
00:50:30 But I'm not worried about parole.
00:50:32 I mean, they can keep their parole.
00:50:33 As long as I'm a coffee bean, the only way I'm going back to prison,
00:50:36 I go to prisons all over America.
00:50:38 And I share this story with the men and women in there
00:50:40 to bring them hope on their journeys.
00:50:41 And I walk out the front gate of all the prisons, you know?
00:50:44 That must make you feel really good when you walk out of the front door.
00:50:48 I always say a little prayer of thanks.
00:50:50 Thank you, God.
00:50:51 Thank you, God. I can't believe this is my life.
00:50:53 But I mean, yeah, walking out the gate helps.
00:50:55 But even what's cooler about your story, because I think that is fascinating,
00:50:58 and I'm sure everyone listening is at the edge of their seat,
00:51:01 it's how you took--most of us don't have a felon rap sheet.
00:51:06 We fill out the form, "Have you been arrested?"
00:51:08 and, you know, "Do you have any misdemeanors on a job application?"
00:51:11 Most people say no.
00:51:13 We don't have the debt to society and be on parole.
00:51:16 But you've built something of yourself in such a magnificent way
00:51:20 in a short period of time.
00:51:21 I mean, you've been out of prison eight years?
00:51:22 Eight years, man.
00:51:24 Yeah, you're absolutely right.
00:51:26 You just hit on one thing a minute ago when you were saying
00:51:29 the first year you made $500.
00:51:31 Yeah.
00:51:32 You know, I'm a speaker as well, not full-time, but I do a lot of speaking.
00:51:36 The first 100 stages I spoke on, my answer was, "Oh, do you get paid?"
00:51:40 "If you pay me, I'll do it for free."
00:51:42 Yeah, absolutely.
00:51:43 I didn't care.
00:51:44 I just wanted to speak and get on stage, and one of my mentors told me,
00:51:47 "Go speak on 100 stages for free."
00:51:49 Yeah, that's great advice.
00:51:51 And that's what I tell a lot of speakers, man, is that you're not going to get paid a lot
00:51:55 doing this at first.
00:51:56 You may not get paid at all doing this at first, but you're right.
00:52:00 So I do have to check a box.
00:52:02 As an entrepreneur, I know how meaningful it is to invest in the people
00:52:07 and causes that are close to me.
00:52:09 And on GoFundMe, it's easy, safe, and powerful to do just that,
00:52:13 whether you're supporting a family member, friend, local business, or charity.
00:52:18 And whenever you make a donation, you're protected by the GoFundMe giving guarantee.
00:52:23 Visit GoFundMe.com today to help make a positive difference in your community.
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00:53:00 And in America, punishment never stops.
00:53:05 I'm going to say that again for the whole audience.
00:53:07 Punishment never stops.
00:53:08 What that means is a guy like Damon West, who since I've been out of prison,
00:53:12 I've become a model citizen.
00:53:14 I pay a lot of taxes now.
00:53:16 I'm a taxpayer.
00:53:17 I'm a family man.
00:53:18 I'm a businessman.
00:53:19 I went back to school.
00:53:20 I got a master's in criminal justice.
00:53:21 Congratulations.
00:53:22 And I became a professor at the University of Houston, teaching a class called "Prisons in America."
00:53:27 I mean, I'm the only professor on earth to teach a prisons class who lived in prison, right?
00:53:30 So I've got all these things going for me.
00:53:32 I've got best-selling books.
00:53:33 I've spoken on stages in different countries all over the world.
00:53:36 But if I go in to get a normal job and I've got to go in and fill out an application, check a box,
00:53:40 I'm not going to get that job because punishment never stops.
00:53:43 So a lot of people with felony records like mine, they have to become entrepreneurs.
00:53:47 And I realized this.
00:53:48 I had a job waiting for me out of prison at a law firm because I did my own legal work when I was in prison.
00:53:53 And that was just another God thing because I did my own legal work trying to get out.
00:53:58 I get the attention of these lawyers back in Beaumont, Texas.
00:54:00 And this one lawyer that owns the firm named Walter Humphrey, Walter wrote me.
00:54:04 He said, "Listen, you put together a hell of a legal writ for a guy that's never been to law school.
00:54:09 If you ever get out of prison, come see me.
00:54:10 I've got a job for you, son."
00:54:12 Second day out of prison, I'm working in the most prestigious law firm in Southeast Texas.
00:54:16 Just like that.
00:54:18 Instant validation for a guy that needs validation.
00:54:21 So I've got this dream, though, to share this story.
00:54:23 But the problem is there's not a lot of places for me to speak.
00:54:26 You can't just get out of prison, go knock on the door of a school and say, "Hey, I just got out of prison.
00:54:30 I want to talk to your kids."
00:54:31 You probably have to stay away from schools, don't you?
00:54:32 Well, not with my kind of crimes.
00:54:34 I can go around schools with my kind of crimes.
00:54:36 Remember, I'm an organized crime guy.
00:54:37 I'm not child molester, none of that stuff.
00:54:39 I don't even have a drug conviction.
00:54:40 Even though all my crimes were about drugs, the DA didn't want drugs to be a real big part of this case.
00:54:44 They wanted to make it look like I was a mob boss.
00:54:46 They called me Tony Soprano.
00:54:47 They called me Al Capone at this trial.
00:54:49 I mean, they wanted to look like this guy is at the top and he's just a mob boss.
00:54:52 But the truth is--
00:54:53 Not a drug addict who just--
00:54:54 Not a drug addict who smoked everything up.
00:54:56 I had nothing to show for this crime story.
00:54:57 But that was a gift from them because I don't have drugs.
00:55:00 Because you should have had millions of dollars.
00:55:01 I should have had millions of dollars.
00:55:03 I should have been driving nice cars, all this stuff you see drug dealers doing it and mob bosses doing it.
00:55:06 I didn't have that.
00:55:07 I didn't have anything.
00:55:08 But what I also don't have is a felony record with drug convictions on it.
00:55:12 So I can go into schools.
00:55:14 But the problem is I got to get someone to believe in me.
00:55:15 Here's the thing.
00:55:16 Growth follows belief.
00:55:17 You have to believe in yourself before other people believe in you.
00:55:19 You believed in Everbold before anybody else would ever believe in Everbold, right?
00:55:23 Right.
00:55:24 And you sold that belief because people saw Jeff.
00:55:27 Man, Jeff believes in himself.
00:55:28 And I believe in this product too.
00:55:30 You are a product.
00:55:31 And no one's going to believe in you until you believe in yourself.
00:55:34 And so I believed in myself.
00:55:35 And so I found this cop and this judge locally that would take me around to schools.
00:55:39 And there weren't a lot of places for me to go speak.
00:55:41 So in my parents' spare bedroom, I went to my parents' spare bedroom.
00:55:45 And they had a mirror in there when I moved in.
00:55:48 And this mirror became my audience because I would practice my presentation.
00:55:52 For the first two years I was out of prison, most of my presentations were in front of that mirror.
00:55:55 I never missed a day.
00:55:56 If I got to speak somewhere, I wouldn't do the presentation at home in front of the mirror.
00:56:00 But if I wasn't speaking somewhere, which were most times the first two years,
00:56:04 I did a presentation every day in front of that mirror.
00:56:06 The presentation I'm doing now was built in my parents' spare bedroom, got in my reps.
00:56:10 It's so important in life, getting your reps.
00:56:12 That's why you go speak for free when you're first starting out because you get in your reps.
00:56:15 You can try things.
00:56:16 You see what works here, what doesn't work there.
00:56:18 And the expectation is low because they're not paying you.
00:56:20 The expectation is low because they're not paying you.
00:56:21 But the way that you know that you're making the impact is when somebody that's in the audience says,
00:56:26 "Hey, man, I need you to come speak to my group."
00:56:28 You know you're working with something.
00:56:30 But I really wanted to speak to college football programs because I used to play college football, right?
00:56:34 And I can get through to these guys.
00:56:36 But I didn't know any college football coaches.
00:56:37 They didn't know me.
00:56:38 But this big break in my life happened.
00:56:40 It was January 12, 2017.
00:56:43 I've been out of prison for 14 months.
00:56:45 I'm at work that day at the law firm.
00:56:47 And a buddy of mine in Houston calls me.
00:56:49 He says, "Hey, Damon, get down to Houston.
00:56:50 Houston's 90 miles away."
00:56:52 He says, "Down here in Houston right now tonight is the Bear Bryant Coach of the Year Award.
00:56:55 The eight best coaches in the country are going to be here, college football coaches."
00:56:58 He said, "I've got an extra press pass for you if you want to go."
00:57:01 He works for KHOU, for the media station.
00:57:03 So, man, I haul ass, man.
00:57:05 I get in my car.
00:57:06 I drive the 90 miles from Beaumont to Houston.
00:57:08 And as I'm driving, I'm practicing my elevator pitch out loud, what I'm going to say to these coaches
00:57:11 because this is my first shot in front of these coaches, man.
00:57:13 So he sneaks me in, gives me a press pass, and there I am.
00:57:16 I'm on the floor of the Toyota Center.
00:57:17 All these coaches are there.
00:57:18 And I'm running around, and I'm shaking hands.
00:57:21 You know what?
00:57:22 USC, Wisconsin, Penn State, PJ Fleck, they're all there.
00:57:24 And every one of these coaches that I'm meeting, I'm shaking their hands, I'm giving them my pitch,
00:57:29 why they should bring me in to talk to their team, they all tell me no.
00:57:32 And they slam doors in my face hard like, "No, don't call us.
00:57:35 We'll call you."
00:57:36 In one hour, I've been told no seven times by the eight coaches that are there.
00:57:40 That's a no every eight minutes, man.
00:57:42 I'm in the corner of the Toyota Center.
00:57:44 I'm licking my wounds.
00:57:45 I'm feeling sorry for myself.
00:57:46 And the voice in my head is screaming at me, "Get out of here.
00:57:49 Go home.
00:57:50 You're an imposter."
00:57:51 You ever felt like an imposter before, Jeff, when you started your business?
00:57:53 >> The syndrome is the number one issue for most entrepreneurs.
00:57:56 >> Absolutely, and it can kill you faster than anything else.
00:57:59 And the reason why we cannot listen to the voice in our head, because the voice in our head is sometimes fear,
00:58:05 and fear is a liar.
00:58:06 >> It's almost always fear.
00:58:07 >> It's almost always fear, yeah, yeah.
00:58:09 And you know what?
00:58:10 You're going to listen.
00:58:11 You talk to yourself more than anybody else talks to you.
00:58:14 So that's what I do.
00:58:15 I don't listen to myself.
00:58:16 I talk to myself out loud.
00:58:17 I talk to myself a lot.
00:58:19 So I'm in the corner of the Toyota Center, and I'm pumping myself back up.
00:58:22 I'm telling me, "You're not going anywhere.
00:58:23 You know, you survived prison, man.
00:58:24 You survived something way worse than this."
00:58:26 I'm applying that perspective, what a bad day looks like, right?
00:58:28 I'm pumping myself up.
00:58:30 I'm like, "That last coach is going to tell you no to your face, and then you're going home."
00:58:33 So I stalked Dabo Sweeney around this room, and I look like a nut, Jeff.
00:58:36 I'm hiding behind fake plants.
00:58:38 I'm weaving in and out of tables.
00:58:39 Every conversation Dabo has, I'm there.
00:58:41 I'm trying to jump into it, and, man, he sees me, man.
00:58:44 Security sees me.
00:58:45 I think they're going to get me and throw me out of here, but I finally pounce on Dabo.
00:58:48 I give him my best stuff, and I come up for air after about a minute of talking to Dabo.
00:58:51 Dabo's like, "Dude, you got a card on you."
00:58:54 So I gave him my card, and he grabbed it, and he said, "I'll check you out," and he takes off.
00:58:58 I'm like, "That's a no.
00:59:00 I've seen that no tonight already," but I felt good about that last no because I left it all on the field.
00:59:05 That's what we learn from sports, or as Mr. Jackson said, "You don't have to win all your fights.
00:59:09 You just have to fight all your fights," or sales.
00:59:12 Man, you make every call.
00:59:14 You knock on every door.
00:59:15 Then your day is over.
00:59:17 So I went home and slept like a baby.
00:59:18 Forgot all about that night.
00:59:19 Four months later, I get an email from the director of football operations at Clemson, a guy named Mike Dooley.
00:59:24 His email says, "Hey, Damon, Coach Sweeney met you at an awards show in Houston.
00:59:28 He'd love to have you come talk to the team.
00:59:30 Do you have August 1st open?"
00:59:32 Dude, Mike, I got every first open, brother.
00:59:34 I got nothing going on in my life, man.
00:59:36 I got nothing going on.
00:59:37 I'm still talking in front of a mirror in 2017, you know?
00:59:40 So August 1st, 2017, I've been out of prison almost two years.
00:59:44 Remember all those reps in front of the mirror.
00:59:46 I finally get in front of the big stage in front of the national champions, man, defending national champions, Clemson football.
00:59:52 And after my presentation that night, Dabo's up in my face.
00:59:55 He's like, "Oh, man, that's the most amazing story I've ever heard."
00:59:58 He said, "Have you been to Alabama yet?"
01:00:00 I was like, "No, Dabo, I've been to Clemson."
01:00:03 He said, "Well, man, I'll just text Nick Saban, man.
01:00:05 We'll see what happens."
01:00:06 And, man, the next day I get a call from Saban's guy.
01:00:08 "We'll see you in Tuscaloosa in three weeks."
01:00:10 Dabo called.
01:00:11 "You're on."
01:00:12 Just like that, Dabo Sweeney starts kicking the door open to college football.
01:00:15 Kirby Smart's calling.
01:00:16 Lincoln Riley's calling.
01:00:17 Every coach in America's calling me.
01:00:18 "When are you coming to talk to my team?"
01:00:21 But the real magic of my life happened one year after that presentation at Clemson.
01:00:24 It was August of 2018.
01:00:26 I was at my desk at work.
01:00:28 And I don't work at the law firm anymore, Jeff.
01:00:31 So I was at my desk at the law firm, and I get a phone call.
01:00:36 And on the other end of my phone is a guy named John Gordon.
01:00:38 And John Gordon's one of the biggest motivational speakers and authors in America, maybe in the world.
01:00:42 This guy has 28 books.
01:00:44 He's an energy bus guy.
01:00:45 Millions of books.
01:00:46 I follow John.
01:00:47 I know who he is.
01:00:48 I'm like, "John, I know who you are.
01:00:50 How do you know who I am?"
01:00:51 He said, "Dabo Sweeney."
01:00:53 He said, "I just got done speaking to Clemson's football team."
01:00:55 Dabo brings him to the office.
01:00:56 For 30 minutes, he tells me your whole story, Damon.
01:00:58 And he tells me the story of the coffee bean.
01:01:00 John's like, "Damon, the world needs the coffee bean message.
01:01:04 Will you write a book with me?
01:01:05 We'll call it 'The Coffee Bean.'
01:01:06 Let's deliver the message to the world."
01:01:08 So in the summer of 2019, exactly 10 years after I first heard the story of the coffee bean
01:01:12 in a jail cell for Mr. Jackson in 2009, the book, "The Coffee Bean," comes out and it explodes.
01:01:18 It takes the world by storm.
01:01:20 Because it doesn't just sell out as a bestseller in America.
01:01:23 It gets a global publishing deal attached to it.
01:01:25 It's in almost every language in the world.
01:01:27 Chinese, Spanish, Arabic, French, Italian.
01:01:29 They've all got a copy of "The Coffee Bean" on the shelf.
01:01:31 But it goes back to that one night in Houston, Texas, January 12, 2017.
01:01:36 I'm in the corner of the Toyota Center.
01:01:37 I got my seven nos.
01:01:39 If I walk out the door that night, because the voice in my head told me to leave, man.
01:01:42 If I listen to that voice at night, we're not here having this conversation.
01:01:45 The world doesn't have the coffee bean message.
01:01:47 So what I'm telling everybody out there is, like, don't give up in life before the miracle happens.
01:01:51 You've got the ability to turn your life around anytime you want.
01:01:54 You're one dabble-sweeny away from all your dreams happening, everything coming true.
01:01:59 But if you quit and walk out now, you'll never know who you could be.
01:02:02 Ed said, Ed Milet, good friend Ed Milet, he says, "On the other side of the adversity is the best version of you.
01:02:08 But you have to go through the adversity to meet that other person, shake their hand, and become that man or woman you were always meant to be."
01:02:14 And I truly believe that, Jeff.
01:02:15 I truly believe that we have to go through things in life to become the best version of ourselves.
01:02:20 And it's always hardest at the top.
01:02:21 It's right before you get to the peak of any mountain is the steepest.
01:02:24 Yeah.
01:02:25 It's on purpose.
01:02:26 That's great, man.
01:02:27 It's on purpose.
01:02:28 It's on purpose.
01:02:29 Because if it wasn't, everyone would be at the top.
01:02:30 Everyone would be at the top.
01:02:31 And then the top would have to be higher.
01:02:32 Yeah.
01:02:33 Because if we're all there, then that becomes normal.
01:02:34 That makes a lot of sense, man.
01:02:35 And so that last little bit, and I use the analogy on stage a lot of planting a seed.
01:02:39 You plant a seed in the ground.
01:02:41 Sprouts.
01:02:42 Sprout.
01:02:43 It sprouts.
01:02:44 And first, the roots go down.
01:02:45 Nothing sprouted out to the surface.
01:02:47 So you're watering, you're waiting, you're waiting for this plant, you're waiting, you're putting in the time, you're watering, you're nurturing, you're taking.
01:02:52 You don't think anything's happening because you don't see the roots being built.
01:02:55 Right.
01:02:56 Before it can go up, it has to go down.
01:02:58 And so often we throw it away because, ah, it's a dead seed.
01:03:02 No plant.
01:03:03 Yeah.
01:03:04 And you just throw it away because all those roots were there and you just killed it.
01:03:06 You just killed it.
01:03:07 And that's that seven or eight.
01:03:08 That's just the way I've articulated that.
01:03:10 John Gordon told me something, man, almost exactly.
01:03:12 I'm going to call John when we get done here and tell him about the root thing.
01:03:14 John told me when we wrote the Coffee Bean, right, this is coming out.
01:03:17 He said, "Damon, this is going to be big."
01:03:18 And he said, "I'm going to tell you something.
01:03:20 Your message is be a coffee bean."
01:03:23 Because I was already talking about the Coffee Bean before we wrote the book.
01:03:25 He said, "Your message is be a coffee bean.
01:03:27 Don't ever stop telling your message."
01:03:29 He said, "Stick with your message."
01:03:30 He said, "I don't care how long it takes for that message to take hold,
01:03:33 but here's what happens to people in life.
01:03:35 They don't see the progress fast enough and they change their message
01:03:38 or they change their brand.
01:03:40 Don't do that because if you stick with this, you'll be known as the Coffee Bean guy."
01:03:44 He said, "I'm known as the Energy Bus guy.
01:03:46 That's a pretty big thing."
01:03:47 He said, "One day the Coffee Bean guy is going to be a pretty big thing if you stick with it."
01:03:51 And John was right because I never changed my message, didn't confuse people in who I was,
01:03:55 and now the Coffee Bean message is all over the world, man.
01:03:58 It should be.
01:03:59 Yeah, I mean you are--
01:04:00 And I said at the beginning of our episode,
01:04:03 I have heard hundreds if not thousands of people speak,
01:04:06 and I get to stand on a stage before or after them.
01:04:10 Without doubt, your story has captivated me
01:04:14 unlike any other story I've ever heard.
01:04:16 It did it with Dabo.
01:04:17 It's doing it around the world in every language, in every country
01:04:21 because it's evergreen.
01:04:23 I don't have to be an entrepreneur or a doctor or come from this family
01:04:27 or have these challenges or--
01:04:29 I've heard amazing people overcome incredible adversities.
01:04:33 I just can't always relate to them.
01:04:35 Everyone can relate to life's a pot of boiling water.
01:04:37 Absolutely.
01:04:38 You don't have to be in prison to be a pot of--
01:04:40 Life is a pot of boiling water, and you have three choices, man.
01:04:43 You can be like the carrot that turns soft, the egg that becomes hard, or the--
01:04:46 And most people think that they only have two choices,
01:04:48 and that's what I love about your story.
01:04:50 I used to see the meme or the quote,
01:04:52 "You can choose to be--
01:04:54 The same pot of water can make a carrot soft or an egg hard."
01:04:58 So it's not the environment, it's you, but that third piece.
01:05:02 The coffee bean.
01:05:03 You can actually change the damn water.
01:05:05 Yeah, changes the entire water, man.
01:05:07 It's just a-- It makes your whole brain stop.
01:05:10 And here's the thing about the coffee bean, man,
01:05:12 is that the coffee bean doesn't even do its job
01:05:15 until the water's the hottest, until you get to 212 degrees.
01:05:18 That's when the coffee bean unleashes what's inside of it
01:05:20 because if you don't get the water boiling,
01:05:22 you don't get what's inside the coffee bean out.
01:05:25 So when the pressure is the hottest,
01:05:27 the highest pressure there is,
01:05:29 the thing is, or the tough is, they look like they're at their worst,
01:05:31 that's when you have the biggest chance to perform, man.
01:05:33 That's the power of the coffee bean.
01:05:35 But here's the warning.
01:05:36 You can sit on the biggest messenger,
01:05:39 you can sit on the coffee bean message and not use it
01:05:42 because you can't apply those structures in your life
01:05:44 of being consistent, of having good habits,
01:05:47 of having good belief systems.
01:05:49 Mr. Jackson, I found him later on in life.
01:05:51 It took seven years to find this guy.
01:05:53 He was dead by the time I found him.
01:05:55 He died of an opiate overdose.
01:05:57 Died back in 2017.
01:05:59 Been dead for six years now.
01:06:00 He was a drug addict just like me.
01:06:02 He never could apply the coffee bean in his own life,
01:06:04 but he sat on that message,
01:06:05 one of the most powerful messages I've ever heard,
01:06:07 that we've ever heard.
01:06:08 He had that message,
01:06:09 but he couldn't transform his life with it
01:06:11 because he couldn't make the good habits
01:06:13 and apply it like you have to in your daily life.
01:06:15 And here's one of the things I think got Mr. Jackson in the end
01:06:18 is he didn't fully apply the fact that you can have a carrot day.
01:06:23 You can have an egg day.
01:06:25 And it didn't have to be your whole day, though,
01:06:27 because you can stop your day and start it over anytime you want.
01:06:29 When you get stuck in a rut, things happen, you have a bad day,
01:06:32 hit the pause button in life.
01:06:33 Take a step back.
01:06:34 Take a deep breath, man, and then change your day.
01:06:36 Be a coffee bean again.
01:06:38 So Mr. Jackson, when I found that he was dead,
01:06:41 I had to find a way to honor him
01:06:43 because I'm not here without him.
01:06:45 So I found his family, and I got with them,
01:06:48 and I started a scholarship in his name.
01:06:50 So every year I put $10,000 into a trust,
01:06:53 and his family picks out the winner of the scholarship.
01:06:55 Every year, one little boy or one little girl
01:06:57 that grows up in his old neighborhood,
01:06:59 goes to his old high school,
01:07:00 gets a better chance at life through an education
01:07:02 because we met up in Dallas County Jail in 2009.
01:07:04 Yeah, so I finally found Mr. Jackson.
01:07:06 It was really important to me to close that circle and find that man.
01:07:10 And even though he's passed on, his legacy still lives on,
01:07:14 and it's one of the best messages I've ever heard, Jeff.
01:07:17 When Tim Grover was here, we were chatting,
01:07:19 and he had this saying, or he was explaining it to me.
01:07:23 When is it darkest?
01:07:25 Right before dawn.
01:07:27 Well, he said at the start of a new day.
01:07:29 Yeah.
01:07:30 And to your point, you can start your new day at any point.
01:07:32 Absolutely.
01:07:33 And it could be the darkest moment of your day
01:07:35 is the perfect time to start your new day.
01:07:37 100%.
01:07:38 And that's the coffee bean story.
01:07:39 And for those listening,
01:07:40 what I hope you take from this is what I took from this,
01:07:43 which is you can apply this message, this theme, immediately.
01:07:47 You don't need an education.
01:07:49 You don't need any resources.
01:07:50 Tomorrow, you don't need to wait a week from today.
01:07:53 Like right now, when you put down this podcast
01:07:56 or this audio or video you're watching,
01:07:58 you can be the coffee bean in your life.
01:08:00 You can set these good intentions, these good principles to live by,
01:08:03 and now change is happening.
01:08:05 You're changing the water.
01:08:07 You're changing your environment.
01:08:08 You're changing your life.
01:08:09 And I'm changing my--yeah.
01:08:11 It's like everything has changed, Jeff.
01:08:13 Like I said, I can't believe this is my own life.
01:08:16 And if there's--anybody that's an entrepreneur looking out there,
01:08:19 you're looking at a guy that got out of prison eight years ago
01:08:22 and in that span became a multimillionaire sharing a story.
01:08:27 Did it with the intent to just help other people at first,
01:08:30 but sharing stories, writing books.
01:08:34 If I can do it, you can do it.
01:08:36 That's the thing.
01:08:37 I don't look at the limitations that can hold me back.
01:08:40 I look at the potential that life that this day has in front of me.
01:08:43 And it's even more important that you are a multimillionaire
01:08:45 because for entrepreneurs watching, we have this bad habit
01:08:49 of evaluating success metrics based on income,
01:08:52 and you say, "Well, I don't want to do that because I don't make enough money."
01:08:55 Here's the example.
01:08:57 Someone who didn't start with money as their motivation,
01:08:59 you want it to affect change.
01:09:01 You want it to share your message.
01:09:02 You want it to stay true to your message
01:09:04 and not change it because you're not seeing results.
01:09:06 Get in the reps. Put in the time.
01:09:08 Eight years coming out of prison as a maximum security prison.
01:09:12 So relationship capital was not unlimited for you.
01:09:16 You didn't have a lot of friends calling you saying,
01:09:18 "How can I help you, Damon?"
01:09:19 "Let me open doors for you like a lot of us have."
01:09:22 But you hit on something, relationships.
01:09:24 Relationships are the most important thing in life.
01:09:26 You get these things, you grow them, you cultivate them.
01:09:29 These relationships are a very important life, man.
01:09:32 Relationships are everything.
01:09:33 I wouldn't be where I am without a lot of people that have helped me along the way
01:09:36 and the relationships I've formed, and I am so grateful.
01:09:39 And when you have relationships with people,
01:09:41 you've got to nurture those things, man.
01:09:43 You do it right. You lead with value.
01:09:44 My book, Relationship Bank Account,
01:09:46 which is all about how I built my career off relationships,
01:09:48 and I agree, it's the number one superpower not enough people use.
01:09:52 You lead with value.
01:09:53 That's it, brother.
01:09:54 You help enough people, and you do good for enough people,
01:09:56 and they're going to do it back.
01:09:57 Absolutely.
01:09:58 And your story does that.
01:09:59 You impact and touch every single person who hears it.
01:10:02 No one is the same after hearing the coffee bean story.
01:10:04 I appreciate that, man.
01:10:05 Genuinely, I'm honored to have you here.
01:10:07 And for those who are meeting you for the first time,
01:10:10 I'm super excited that they get to do it on The Jeff Fenster Show
01:10:13 because it's just even more exciting that I got to be a little part of that.
01:10:16 Yeah.
01:10:17 But you're going to see more of Damon West.
01:10:18 I mean, you speak all over the world.
01:10:19 If you have events, you need this man there.
01:10:22 He will light up the audience and the room and bring everybody to a higher level.
01:10:26 I am excited to come and watch you speak again and again and again.
01:10:29 I can't get enough of your story.
01:10:31 I appreciate that, brother, and hopefully we'll be on some of the same stages.
01:10:34 At the end of the day, man, when I did his podcast, I said, "Hey, man, look,
01:10:36 I still want to do some of your masterminds.
01:10:38 I want to be in that room."
01:10:39 And sometimes in life, you just have to be in the room.
01:10:42 That's right.
01:10:43 It's not all about making the money right there on the spot,
01:10:45 but you've got to be in that room because if you're not in the room,
01:10:47 well, you know what happens.
01:10:49 You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.
01:10:53 That was what Wayne Gretzky said.
01:10:56 But I'll take it further.
01:10:57 The only question you know the answer to in life is the one you don't ask.
01:11:01 That's a no every time.
01:11:02 That's right.
01:11:03 If you don't ask the question, you've got to always take your shot in life.
01:11:05 To be honest, I was asked to speak at that event.
01:11:09 It was in Scottsdale.
01:11:11 Yeah, Scottsdale.
01:11:12 Yeah, in April.
01:11:13 I had two other travel plans that I had to rearrange,
01:11:17 and I wasn't going to do it, but I ended up saying okay to Dan.
01:11:20 I was like, "Fine, I'll do it."
01:11:22 I was in and out, and I was kind of in my head thinking,
01:11:25 "Do I really want to do this thing?"
01:11:27 Not to the same degree, but I was going to basically cancel.
01:11:29 Yeah.
01:11:30 I talked myself out of it last minute.
01:11:31 I was going to show up, and if I didn't go there, I don't hear your story.
01:11:33 That's it, man.
01:11:34 You've got to be in the room.
01:11:35 Right.
01:11:36 That was the most impactful place I have been this year.
01:11:39 I asked Dan to be in that room too.
01:11:41 So the other side of it, I asked him in that room.
01:11:43 He didn't pay me any money, but I was like, "I'll be there.
01:11:45 I'm already in Scottsdale that day."
01:11:47 I just dipped in, and that's where I got to meet you.
01:11:49 I've got a friend for life now, brother.
01:11:50 It was awesome.
01:11:51 Dude, I want to thank you so much for coming on.
01:11:53 Man, thanks for having me here.
01:11:54 Most importantly, because I'm sure everybody A, wants to buy one of your books.
01:11:58 Where can they buy your books?
01:11:59 Where do they find you?
01:12:00 How do they connect with you?
01:12:01 Books are anywhere.
01:12:03 Anywhere books are sold--Amazon, Barnes & Noble, the Coffee Bean, the Change Edge.
01:12:07 We'll put links down below as well.
01:12:08 If you want to find me for speaking, it's damonwest.org.
01:12:12 D-A-M-O-N-W-S-T dot O-R-G.
01:12:15 My hashtags on social media are @DamonWest7.
01:12:18 So that's where you find me.
01:12:19 Was that your number?
01:12:20 Yeah, that was my number in football.
01:12:21 Good call, brother.
01:12:22 Of course.
01:12:23 Well, thank you, Damian.
01:12:24 This was amazing.
01:12:25 Yeah, man.
01:12:26 Thanks a lot.
01:12:27 I appreciate you, man.
01:12:28 Thank you.
01:12:29 Thank you so much for listening.
01:12:31 If you're looking to level up your relationship capital game, then take a minute and text
01:12:34 the word JEFF to 33777 for a free copy of my Network to Millions playbook.
01:12:41 The link will also be provided in the show notes below.
01:12:44 See you guys next time.
01:12:45 [Music]
01:12:47 [Music]
01:12:49 [Music]
01:12:51 [Music]
01:12:52 (upbeat music)
01:12:54 (upbeat music)
01:12:57 (upbeat music)
01:12:59 (upbeat music)
01:13:02 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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