Latest / Nightmare Success In and Out / "From Rock Bottom to Roofing Powerhouse: Brandon James Rewrites His Future"

Transcript

"From Rock Bottom to Roofing Powerhouse: Brandon James Rewrites His Future" · Nightmare Success In and Out

• 0:01
  What happens when your worst fear becomes your reality?
• 0:04
  Hi, I'm Brent Cassidy, welcome to the Nightmare Success In and
• 0:07
  Out podcast where we explore how to overcome your fears and
• 0:10
  nightmares that set yourself free.
• 0:13
  We're going to be exploring this topic with guys that was in
• 0:15
  Leavenworth with and others who survived their own nightmare.
• 0:20
  These stories can be inspiring, sometimes sad.
• 0:23
  There's some humor, but hopefully you can come away with
• 0:26
  a nugget of something that'll help you knock down some of the
• 0:28
  prisons you built up in your own mind.
• 0:32
  All right. Welcome back, nightmare, success
• 0:34
  and listers. This is where you come from.
• 0:36
  What happens when your worst fear becomes your reality?
• 0:38
  How do you adapt, survive, overcome, set yourself free?
• 0:41
  I know I sound like a broken record, but please follow,
• 0:44
  subscribe, share. Like this thing out.
• 0:47
  It really helps. The show comment too.
• 0:49
  Always great. So who are we talking to today?
• 0:52
  Well, for those who watch this show weekly, I'm not in my
• 0:56
  studio here. I'm interviewing Brandon James
• 0:59
  and I'm over at his studio and he was nice enough to Skyler's
• 1:03
  behind the deal here doing his thing.
• 1:06
  And thank you, Brandon, for for letting me come over to your
• 1:10
  place. We're actually Saint Louis guys,
• 1:12
  so we're just down the street from each other.
• 1:13
  So we're, this is nice to be able to do it face to face to
• 1:19
  tell you a little bit about Brandon.
• 1:23
  So Brandon James, he's, he's an entrepreneur, he's a podcast
• 1:26
  host, he's a motivational speaker.
• 1:28
  But the crazy part of his story is about 6 1/2 years ago,
• 1:32
  Brandon was walking out of prison with nothing, nothing,
• 1:36
  thinking the world was over and be it would be better off
• 1:38
  without him. And he hit that rock bottom
• 1:42
  moment and what he's been able to do since that rock bottom
• 1:47
  moment and stepping out of it, he created Brandon J Roofing,
• 1:52
  one of the biggest roofing companies state of Missouri,
• 1:56
  doing over $60 million annually. Now it's one of the most
• 1:59
  respected roofing companies in the state.
• 2:01
  And like I said, he's a sought after motivational speaker,
• 2:04
  coach, podcast hope of whatever it takes.
• 2:08
  One of my favorite quotes that I heard him talk about on another
• 2:12
  show was you either are a victim or a victor.
• 2:16
  You have a choice. And that's the way that he's
• 2:20
  built his company culture. Brandon's built a company that
• 2:24
  has incredible training. It's got incentives that helps
• 2:28
  people thrive. It's motivated on recognition.
• 2:31
  But I what I love about it is he really focuses on the family,
• 2:35
  the whole family. And, and, you know, they say
• 2:37
  they're all counting on him to, to, to make it all work and
• 2:41
  every, he's got a great team around him that helps make it
• 2:43
  work. And he does a lot with the
• 2:45
  community. And they always are looking for
• 2:47
  ways to make things better in the community, which I love.
• 2:51
  I can't wait to unpack all this with Brandon.
• 2:54
  But before we do, I want to recognize our show sponsor, Auto
• 2:57
  Plaza Direct. You know who likes spending a
• 2:59
  couple of weekends walking car lots looking for a car?
• 3:03
  Then you spend four or five hours in the dealership to buy a
• 3:05
  car. It's kind of like a root canal
• 3:06
  appointment. Well, there's a better way to
• 3:08
  take away all that pain and hassle getting a car.
• 3:10
  It's called Auto Plaza Direct. They're your personal car
• 3:12
  concierge. Just tell them the car you want,
• 3:14
  what you can pay, and they'll go find that car for you.
• 3:17
  They'll negotiate your best price.
• 3:19
  They also offer you warranties and financing.
• 3:21
  It's all full service. Go to autoplazadirect.com to get
• 3:23
  started with your personal car concierge.
• 3:25
  The new hassle freeway, the car buying experience you deserve.
• 3:28
  Auto Plaza Direct. Tell them Brent from Nightmare
• 3:30
  Success sent you. Brandon James.
• 3:32
  Welcome in my man Thank you. Man, thanks.
• 3:34
  Brandon, thanks for inviting me over to your place.
• 3:36
  Absolutely no thanks for coming. Super, super glad it all worked
• 3:40
  with the schedules and yeah, definitely glad to get to meet
• 3:43
  you face to face and get to jam out with you for for some time
• 3:46
  today. Well, I, I kind of hassled you a
• 3:48
  little bit because I really wanted this interview and you
• 3:51
  know, sometimes I do that just when I, you know, I just, I know
• 3:54
  that you're busy. I'm really glad that you made
• 3:56
  time to do it, but man am I fascinated with your story.
• 3:59
  One of the things I, I, you know, I was just talking to you
• 4:01
  guys about before we started filming.
• 4:04
  We've got 2 audiences in this world.
• 4:06
  We've got the one that this goes out to on Spotify and Apple and
• 4:10
  all the other platforms, but we also go into the adobo platform
• 4:13
  on the tablets in 1100 prisons. And this, you know, this story
• 4:19
  and platform is about breaking the narrative.
• 4:22
  You know, that people who make a mistake, they can make something
• 4:25
  happen with opportunities with their second chance.
• 4:28
  And I think your story has all those elements.
• 4:31
  But I, I want to bring us back Brandon to before all this
• 4:36
  growing up as a kid, I, I know you talk about your challenges.
• 4:40
  Can you kind of bring us into that world as a kid growing up?
• 4:43
  Yeah, absolutely, man. It was just had good parents,
• 4:51
  had good parents, man. And just like just doing the
• 4:55
  best they could. And and then, you know, there
• 4:57
  are some more unfortunate circumstances and just should
• 4:59
  happen at the end of the day. And you know, it was my parents
• 5:04
  separated and I was really angry.
• 5:09
  You know, I turned to all the how.
• 5:11
  Old would you have been when they separated?
• 5:12
  10, 10:10 or 11:00 somewhere out there like. 5th or 6th grade,
• 5:17
  Yeah. And man, it's just like I had an
• 5:20
  older brother and older sister and you know, I, it just, I was
• 5:25
  met angry, you know, I felt like, oh, OK, you stuck it out
• 5:28
  for them, but not me. Whatever.
• 5:29
  I'm the youngest. And yeah, just was angry, right?
• 5:33
  And I just turned to all the wrong things.
• 5:35
  You know, I started, I tried weed for the first time.
• 5:39
  I was probably 10 years old. Started drinking when I could
• 5:41
  get my hands on it. And, you know, then I realized
• 5:44
  very quickly that, you know, I, I, I like substances, you know,
• 5:49
  I like that numbing feeling. Probably it'll escape.
• 5:51
  For sure and and I realized I like the party just a little bit
• 5:54
  different everybody else and you know, I the first time I was
• 6:00
  incarcerated, I was 12 years old.
• 6:02
  You know, it put me in the juvenile system and.
• 6:05
  What was that like for you at 12 years old, 'cause I mean, that's
• 6:10
  something that not every kid goes and experiences.
• 6:13
  Man, survival, like I got to survive.
• 6:18
  You know, I remember the juvenile center.
• 6:21
  I'm from Saint Charles. That juvenile center was full.
• 6:24
  And so they sent me to Vander Vendor.
• 6:27
  And so I was, you know, now I'm down in the city and it was just
• 6:31
  the juvenile's a little bit rougher down there, you know,
• 6:34
  from Saint Charles. And it was, yeah.
• 6:36
  Just survive, you know, survive. And you know, I, I don't know, I
• 6:41
  just, I was kind of. Did you feel like that was a
• 6:45
  mark on you coming out? Do you think I'd go back to
• 6:47
  school? Honestly, like I, I kind of was,
• 6:51
  I not kind of, I was definitely attracted to the wrong thing,
• 6:55
  you know, I just like wanted to do the wrong thing for some
• 6:57
  reason, you know, and I don't know if it was attention or like
• 7:01
  I've thought about that. Why, why did I turn?
• 7:04
  Because I, I was always really good at sports and I just kept
• 7:06
  turning to the wrong thing. And I, I, I, I really don't know
• 7:10
  why. But yeah, I went in and out of
• 7:13
  the juvenile system and then I ended up getting certified as an
• 7:18
  adult when I was 16 and that, and I moved in with my brother
• 7:22
  at that time and, and got an apartment and moved into his
• 7:25
  apartment. And you know, he's like, you're
• 7:26
  going to pay half the bills and you're going to go to work and.
• 7:29
  Growing up fast. Yeah, that was that's, you know,
• 7:33
  kind of at that point in time is like, we work hard and we party
• 7:35
  hard, you know, and that's just kind of what we did.
• 7:37
  Me and all my buddies got into the trades, you know, I dropped
• 7:39
  out of school, started swinging a hammer when I was like 16 and
• 7:43
  just started doing, went into the union when I was 18.
• 7:46
  And man, but I, I always had this like this other lifestyle I
• 7:51
  was living too, selling drugs, doing that type of stuff and
• 7:55
  just living that lifestyle as well.
• 7:56
  And it just, I knew it wasn't going to keep going on like it
• 8:01
  wasn't going to last. And but I honestly, I, I, I
• 8:04
  couldn't see Pat. I, I, I didn't think I was going
• 8:06
  to make it to be 21, you know? Everything was short term.
• 8:09
  So short term and, but I, the one thing I did was I went to
• 8:13
  work every day and I was, and I, I got, and I stuck with the same
• 8:16
  trade, you know, I started building houses and I was a
• 8:20
  journeyman Carpenter by the time I was 23.
• 8:22
  And that was when I got incarcerated.
• 8:25
  How'd that nightmare land on you?
• 8:26
  What happened? Yeah, so I was essentially
• 8:30
  selling drugs and, you know, somebody tried to take them from
• 8:35
  me and they got hurt and I went to jail, you know?
• 8:39
  So you would have been 23. I mean, that's, that's a lot.
• 8:42
  I mean, and he had already experienced something pretty
• 8:45
  jarring at 12. What was life like for your
• 8:50
  mindset going into that world at a 23 year old age?
• 8:55
  I just, man, I, I was just. Were you supposed to be there?
• 8:59
  Well, I had a chance to get out early and like 5.
• 9:03
  I ended up doing 10 years and just doing all of it.
• 9:07
  A. Lot of time.
• 9:08
  Yeah, And man, I, I, I, I, I felt so stuck, like I just did
• 9:13
  not have a choice that like this is the hand you were dealt.
• 9:17
  And in my mind, I was I had to figure out how I was going to
• 9:21
  figure out how to do the wrong thing.
• 9:23
  The right way is what I was going to figure out, you know,
• 9:26
  and that was like my big aspirations of like how that,
• 9:29
  you know, when I was a kid, I remember at, you know, young
• 9:32
  going back, you know, and this is after my parents split and,
• 9:36
  you know, now, you know, we're my mom's, we don't have much
• 9:40
  money, right? And I just remember going and
• 9:43
  just to kids houses to play that like they just had it all
• 9:46
  together, like the American dream, right?
• 9:49
  And I remember from like an early age telling myself, like,
• 9:52
  that's not for you. That's only for people like who
• 9:54
  grow up like this, who grow up making all the right decisions.
• 9:57
  And like I'm saying, I, I just remember telling myself that
• 9:59
  from an early age, like, and the only way you're going to have
• 10:02
  anything even close to that is you're going to have to figure
• 10:05
  out a way to cheat the system, you know, and I just told myself
• 10:08
  that lie for so long, you know, and, and just bought into it.
• 10:12
  And so that in my mind it was like, OK, the only I'm, I'm
• 10:14
  going to be the biggest and best drug dealer I could ever be, you
• 10:17
  know? So weird because I I just
• 10:19
  interviewed a guy, Owen Hanson and his his he was a good
• 10:26
  athlete. He went to USC and then when
• 10:28
  they when they won the 2 championships back-to-back.
• 10:31
  But his thing was is that he was just a surfer kid.
• 10:34
  His dad was a construction worker and he never felt like
• 10:36
  he'd fit. And so he got into dealing drugs
• 10:39
  in college and kind of became the guy there.
• 10:41
  And when he got out, his friends were going to the NFL and he
• 10:45
  wasn't. And so he became the biggest
• 10:48
  bookie in the United States. And, and they got in charge with
• 10:53
  a cartel, which was a long story.
• 10:56
  But what's what's interesting about that is how your mindset
• 11:00
  can get into that role. Like you, you get almost like
• 11:04
  tunnel vision. And this is what I've got to do
• 11:06
  because I don't fit. And and then everything else you
• 11:10
  can rationalize. That was I definitely when I was
• 11:14
  younger and coming up, I never felt like I'd like I'd quite fit
• 11:16
  in anywhere, you know, But it was like going through all of
• 11:21
  this stuff like as I was younger and it's like, and today,
• 11:24
  looking back, man, and as it just even as we're sharing the
• 11:28
  story, I looking back, man, I can see it all like God use it
• 11:31
  all as a divinely crafted plan to create the man I need to be
• 11:35
  today. Wow, that's deep.
• 11:37
  Yeah, man, that's deep. So when you doing that amount of
• 11:42
  time, there's all kinds of way that people do their time in
• 11:46
  prison. How did you choke that down?
• 11:49
  Like how did you eat that elephant?
• 11:51
  Yeah, I definitely was not a model inmate.
• 11:55
  You know, man, I, I remember going in there and I just had
• 12:00
  the mindset of I couldn't, you know, I, it's my first time in
• 12:06
  prison. You know, I knew a lot of people
• 12:08
  in here. I, I didn't just make a mistake
• 12:10
  and go to prison, right? And and this, this is where I
• 12:13
  belonged. And you know, I had it in my
• 12:15
  mind that, you know, I couldn't be successful out in the real
• 12:20
  world. Like I couldn't live right out
• 12:22
  there. I couldn't be successful out
• 12:23
  there. I'm at least be successful and
• 12:25
  like live right in here. And, and I wasn't meaning like
• 12:29
  up to like the guard standards, right?
• 12:32
  And it's like, OK, So what do I need to do to do that, right?
• 12:35
  And, and I like what do I need to do to get the like have
• 12:38
  power, control, money, all of it, you know, and so, and I just
• 12:43
  started handling myself accordingly.
• 12:44
  You know, it's like out of that 10 years, I did 6 1/2 in the
• 12:47
  hole. You know, it's a.
• 12:48
  Long time in the hole I. Mean it wasn't, it wasn't flat.
• 12:53
  It was, you know, the longest time of flat was just just right
• 12:56
  at two years and, and you know, but it was a year here, six
• 13:01
  months there. You know, the shortest time was
• 13:03
  I think four months, you know. I got to tell you, people who
• 13:06
  haven't experienced that, and the only time I, the only time I
• 13:11
  really experienced going in the hole was, is when they process
• 13:15
  me because in the federal system, they usually have a camp
• 13:18
  down the way, but they processed you through the big place.
• 13:22
  And the crazy thing is Brandon is you go in and for me, I
• 13:26
  voluntarily surrendered, which is a very weird thing just to
• 13:28
  have somebody drop you off and you just check in your freedom.
• 13:32
  You know, you just, it's almost, it's very weird for your mind.
• 13:36
  But one thing I was thinking when they put me in the hole was
• 13:41
  I wonder if they know I'm not supposed to be here.
• 13:44
  You know, this wasn't in my paperwork.
• 13:47
  Like is this where I'm going to be for my five year sentence?
• 13:50
  And and that's it's a real mind buzz because the the because
• 13:53
  you're only by yourself. So you and I mean, I guess
• 13:56
  sometimes we have somebody else with you, but how did you handle
• 14:00
  that time in that solitary? Man, it's like if you don't know
• 14:04
  yourself going in, you'll definitely get to know yourself.
• 14:08
  Yeah, routine though, stay just like routined where man, like
• 14:15
  just every day stick to the same routine, working out, reading,
• 14:19
  doing like all, just developing a routine inside of this little
• 14:23
  8 by 12 cell, 8 by 10, whatever it was.
• 14:27
  And, and man, and just like watch the days until I see until
• 14:31
  I see the, the board again that this ad SEC board God that you
• 14:35
  said like man. And it would be so crazy 'cause
• 14:39
  it was like after a certain amount of time, I think it like,
• 14:43
  and might think I'm crazy for saying like, I think a set of
• 14:45
  like cabin fever sets in, you know, and like a little bit of
• 14:49
  craziness 'cause you're literally not leaving the cell
• 14:52
  and, you know, 3 showers in the middle of the night, you know, 2
• 14:56
  in the morning cold. If you're not staying at your
• 14:58
  door, you're not getting it. And so it's like, man, reading,
• 15:03
  writing a lot and just working out, you know?
• 15:06
  But you adjust and and like people say, Oh my God, I could
• 15:08
  never do that. And it's like, we really don't
• 15:10
  know until you're forced. To I was just going to say, I
• 15:12
  think one of the things that that going through a horrific
• 15:16
  situation like that, I think one of the things that you come out
• 15:20
  not knowing because you've not been to that type of is what you
• 15:24
  can adapt to. Right.
• 15:26
  Yeah, it's a weird dynamic, what your brain does.
• 15:29
  And then if you do adapt to it, it does give you some kind of
• 15:32
  sense of weird confidence that I can do that.
• 15:36
  There's nothing this world can throw at me outside of, you
• 15:40
  know, taking one of my loved ones from me that like, man, I
• 15:43
  can get through anything. I feel like I've caused more
• 15:46
  pain and discomfort to myself than 99.9% of this world could
• 15:50
  throw at me, right? And so it's like that's the
• 15:52
  mindset I try to meet each day with, can remind myself of.
• 15:57
  So Brandon, I mean you so it's a long amount of time in that type
• 16:01
  of situation. When when you started getting
• 16:06
  six months to your knowing that you were going to get out, what
• 16:11
  were you thinking about re entering society?
• 16:14
  Like what did you have? Because everybody gets freaked
• 16:18
  out. And I know that sounds a little
• 16:20
  weird. Like why would you get freaked
• 16:21
  out about getting out? And the I think the reason why
• 16:24
  is because it's kind of like the old Shawshank redemption movie.
• 16:29
  You get so used to this bad, ugly routine.
• 16:33
  That becomes the routine, you know, and you you get so far
• 16:37
  away from society freedom. That becomes kind of like the
• 16:41
  unknown and, and so it's a people get anxious when they
• 16:47
  know that they're heading back out into the real world.
• 16:49
  What? What were you thinking?
• 16:52
  Man, I, I was so far gone, you know, and just on that side that
• 16:58
  like the dark side, essentially, you know, I was thinking that
• 17:07
  everyone is going to look at me and be able to tell everything
• 17:11
  I've been through and done. Like I was just, you know what
• 17:15
  I'm saying? Just a lot of fear being judged
• 17:18
  and, and just like just fear. And, you know, so I had, I was
• 17:23
  going on my mom like, so my, my mother's a St.
• 17:26
  I have really good parents all around.
• 17:29
  And, you know, was I was going home to her house, right.
• 17:32
  And, you know, she's a retired school teacher, volunteers at
• 17:34
  church. She retired with two masters and
• 17:36
  APHD. Yeah, right.
• 17:38
  Like in like, so. So when I told her I was
• 17:39
  dropping out of school, she was not, obviously.
• 17:41
  I bet she didn't think that was the great number one idea.
• 17:44
  No, but so with that being said, I'm going and she's just an
• 17:49
  awesome woman, right? Great sis St. going home.
• 17:51
  I was going home to her house and you know, I got a a good job
• 17:56
  waiting on me. My brother, you know, he he's
• 17:57
  got a he was got a company. He was up getting up and going,
• 18:00
  you know, go right to work with him.
• 18:01
  I'm a journeyman Carpenter. I always have that to fall back
• 18:04
  on. I got all the opportunity in the
• 18:06
  world out there for me and and A and a family that loves me.
• 18:10
  But I'm bringing me with me, you know, and I had, I mean, I the
• 18:16
  only thing I had been developing in myself was like a more like a
• 18:20
  monster, you know, honestly. And you felt that.
• 18:23
  Yeah, yeah. And everyday I'm just plotting
• 18:26
  and scheming, you know, and it's like just, you know, I was part
• 18:30
  of a legal organization and all. I was definitely all in with
• 18:34
  that. And, you know, that was like,
• 18:37
  it's what I ate bread, like breathe, sleep and eat, you
• 18:41
  know, at the end of the day. And it's like I couldn't see
• 18:43
  anything else for my life. I thought this was it, you know?
• 18:47
  And in my mind, it was like, you know, if I can just get out here
• 18:52
  and at least last for a few years, you know, I'm gonna get
• 18:56
  out here and I'm gonna try. But if I can at least get a
• 18:58
  couple years, you know, and. They're still short term in it,
• 19:02
  I'm thinking, yeah. Right.
• 19:03
  And so you know, I get when I go home.
• 19:07
  It was, man did it. Feel like you'd been gone a long
• 19:12
  time when the I mean they had. No, now come back as like, no,
• 19:16
  it did not. And that's like it, it's scary.
• 19:19
  It, it feels so short. It's scary, you know, and if I'm
• 19:23
  not intentional, I'm intentional about I, I wake up in a prison
• 19:26
  cell every day. I, I vision that and I'll
• 19:28
  explain that deep, but like, I don't ever want to forget it.
• 19:31
  You know, that's one thing I do every morning when I wake up is
• 19:35
  right when I wake up, the first thing.
• 19:37
  I, I, I've got a pretty strict morning routine that I've stuck
• 19:40
  to that I started doing when I was inside and just, I realized
• 19:43
  the power and that discipline and just kept it going.
• 19:46
  But one of the things I added to it was, you know, for the first,
• 19:49
  like, I don't know, 1520 seconds, I'm just, I close my
• 19:52
  eyes and, and I'm sitting in a prison cell and I'm sitting on
• 19:57
  the bunk and I walk to the back window and I look out the window
• 20:00
  and see nothing but, you know, fences and razor wire, maybe a
• 20:03
  patrol car coming. I look out, I take the, you
• 20:06
  know, 5-4 store short steps to the front of the cell, look out
• 20:09
  to a casket shaped wing with a guard walking, jiggling his
• 20:12
  keys. And I live in that for a minute.
• 20:15
  And then I open my eyes, you know, and it's like to the
• 20:19
  beautiful home I get to wake up to, you know, all of the.
• 20:22
  Blessings of today, you know yeah, I think that's
• 20:25
  interesting. You you kind of gave a
• 20:28
  goosebumps with that because I I had these two leather things I
• 20:32
  wear around my wrist that a guy made for me while I was at
• 20:34
  Leavenworth. And when I put these on every
• 20:36
  day I think about, you know, this is better or what's going
• 20:39
  on right now. It's a lot better.
• 20:41
  But I I think about it every day when I put them on.
• 20:43
  Yeah. It's it's a.
• 20:45
  It's easy to forget, you know, and one of them when I see I
• 20:49
  didn't have like and to my advantage, you know, it's like I
• 20:53
  think, well, and as I came home, I felt right on my face when I
• 20:56
  came home like that was like the worst six weeks of my life and.
• 21:01
  Let's talk about that 'cause I think that's one of the hardest
• 21:04
  thing. Well, I think it's one of the
• 21:07
  biggest surprises for people who who go through what we've gone
• 21:13
  through is that you think that the prison thing is going to be
• 21:16
  the hardest part you're going to go through and it's really hard.
• 21:19
  I think the biggest surprise is the RE entry and, and people
• 21:24
  struggle so hard with that. And, and I think a lot of it
• 21:27
  too, Brandon is like you, you brought it up is like, what do
• 21:29
  people get to think? What do they think of me?
• 21:31
  Am I branded into, you know, do I have a scarlet letter on me?
• 21:35
  What, what, what, and you got all these things that are just
• 21:38
  zooming in your mind and everybody's looking at he's got
• 21:40
  to be so happy to be out of prison and you are, you are.
• 21:44
  But man, you've got 1000 things rushing like you're trying to
• 21:47
  jump in a moving car. Yeah, that was, I remember my
• 21:51
  mom came and got me. I was came home from the hole
• 21:55
  under investigation and it was, you know, my mom and my stepdad
• 22:02
  and my niece came to pick me up and we, you know, I remember
• 22:07
  getting home and man, I just like, they just want me to be
• 22:10
  OK. And you know, I, so I remember
• 22:16
  just getting home and just being, having the feelings like,
• 22:19
  man, they have no idea like who I really AM and who they just
• 22:22
  let in their house. And honestly, I said that I
• 22:26
  thought they have no idea the monster they just let in their
• 22:28
  house is what the thought that came to me and you know, it was
• 22:32
  so man, my brother comes and picks me up and like I'm at work
• 22:37
  that day, right? We're out at appointments,
• 22:40
  signing deals and it was just so fast, right?
• 22:44
  And like at the, for the first, like maybe 42448 hours, maybe
• 22:49
  30, I don't know, Everything was kind of OK and just moving
• 22:53
  really fast. Yeah.
• 22:55
  And then all of a sudden it was like I was the second day I was
• 22:58
  riding with my brother and we were going driving to jobs or
• 23:02
  whatever. And man, I just got hit with
• 23:03
  this like 100 forms of fear and anxiety and it was like it just,
• 23:08
  you have no, because like, OK, I'm in this mind says like, OK,
• 23:11
  I, I do want to try to do the right thing.
• 23:13
  And then that's the very, you have no idea how to do the right
• 23:15
  thing. You have 0 idea how to live out
• 23:17
  here. And that was like, man, that
• 23:20
  just hit me like, so like just like 100 forms of fear and
• 23:22
  anxiety all at once. Overwhelming.
• 23:24
  Yeah, man. And, you know, I got the, the
• 23:27
  organization I'm part of, like, they can't wait for me to come,
• 23:30
  like, because they're on the streets and, you know, inside.
• 23:32
  Welcome you back. Yeah, absolutely.
• 23:34
  And they can't wait to see me. And, you know, we got big plans.
• 23:37
  I'm I built myself, you know, I'm somewhat of a figure in that
• 23:39
  world. And you know, you know, brain is
• 23:43
  coming home or you know, it's things are going to happen.
• 23:46
  And and so I remember riding my bra.
• 23:49
  I was like, man, just Take Me Home.
• 23:50
  And in my mind, it was like, I just had to go around like who I
• 23:53
  was comfortable around. I just, I told myself that
• 23:56
  bullshit it like then you just have to go be around these
• 23:59
  people. Like that's only people you're
• 24:00
  safe around. And I don't want people like get
• 24:02
  you. And, and that's what I did.
• 24:05
  And I remember, I remember, man, I told my mom and, you know, the
• 24:10
  clubhouse couple hours away and I'm going to go stay the, you
• 24:14
  know, the week, a couple nights and tell my mom it's like a
• 24:16
  Wednesday. I'm back Saturday.
• 24:18
  And she's like, OK. And I gave her some, you know,
• 24:21
  line of BS, I'm going to see some girl or whatever.
• 24:24
  And you know, as I sent me back on Saturday, it's like, OK,
• 24:27
  well, just don't forget it's my birthday.
• 24:29
  I really want you to go to church with me.
• 24:31
  And it's like, yeah, of course, yeah, of course I'm going to be
• 24:34
  back and go to church with you. You know, she came every other
• 24:36
  weekend and I was, and damn near every prison in Missouri and you
• 24:42
  know, it was. Of course I will.
• 24:44
  You know, I go up to the gathering and before you know
• 24:47
  it, it, you know, it's I'm, I'm getting handed some stuff.
• 24:50
  It's like here, you know, get on your feet type of thing.
• 24:53
  And you know, it was man, it's like I, I didn't want it.
• 25:00
  I didn't take it at first. I came, you know, it's like I'm
• 25:02
  I ended up taking it, man. And it was, it was just like off
• 25:08
  to the races, you know, and before, you know, it's like
• 25:10
  we're clear across on the other side of the state doing this,
• 25:12
  that and the other and just ripping and running.
• 25:17
  And, you know, it's now it's Saturday night and I'm five, you
• 25:21
  know, 5-6 hours away from Saint Louis, you know, out of
• 25:24
  completely out of my mind. And all right, I'm going to, I'm
• 25:31
  going to start driving in the middle of the night and I'll be
• 25:33
  back ready for church, you know, and I just sat there and watched
• 25:36
  the clock until the morning, until 6:00 in the morning.
• 25:39
  My phone started ringing. And of course there was my mom
• 25:43
  and I and I just said, I declined to call and just told
• 25:47
  her I'm sorry. And I turned my phone off and it
• 25:50
  was like, man, still, no matter how out of my mind I was at that
• 25:54
  time, I still remember like the feeling of like, you are nothing
• 25:59
  but a selfish, self-centered piece of crap and garbage that
• 26:02
  gives a damn about nobody but yourself, you know?
• 26:05
  And that's what I am like as that like in my disease, doing
• 26:09
  all that like. And, and it was like, at that
• 26:11
  point in time, the best thing I could do is just go remove
• 26:14
  myself, grab my things and remove I'm my mom from the
• 26:18
  tornado that I'm about to turn into, you know, and, and that's
• 26:23
  what I did, man. And, you know, it was AI went
• 26:29
  and I went and grabbed my stuff and I just took off and was
• 26:33
  running with the, you know, that like those guys and, and more
• 26:37
  scared and terrified than I've ever been in my life.
• 26:40
  And not like, oh, I'm, I'm scared to go, you know, confront
• 26:44
  somebody or something like just like scared of.
• 26:50
  Yeah. And that like any day, any
• 26:53
  minute. Let's get like, I'm on my last
• 26:55
  day here, you know, like I I probably won't see tonight.
• 26:57
  You know, that's the way I was moving.
• 27:00
  And, you know, I was also talking to this girl at this
• 27:02
  time, you know, I came home and, you know, just been 10 years,
• 27:06
  you know, So he like phones, technology, Facebook, you know,
• 27:11
  and you know, of course I, I started messaging all these
• 27:14
  girls. I, I, you know, I went to school
• 27:16
  with, It's like, all right, who's divorced?
• 27:18
  Right, I'm back. Who's free?
• 27:21
  And that's right. And I'll be damned if one didn't
• 27:24
  message me back. And we get to talking and she
• 27:27
  starts telling me about this just awesome life she has, and I
• 27:31
  could tell her something different right away.
• 27:33
  And she's like, well, yeah, like I'm I'm sober and I'm like,
• 27:37
  what's that mean? Like you just smoke, you just
• 27:40
  drink, you just pop pills. What's that mean?
• 27:41
  She's like, no, I'm free and clear of any mood and mind
• 27:43
  altering chemicals and and like have this awesome life.
• 27:47
  You could have this too, you know?
• 27:49
  And I just laughed like, that's cool that work for you, but you
• 27:52
  don't get it. Like this is who I right.
• 27:54
  And say, OK, well, if the pain never gets bad enough, it's an
• 27:58
  open invitation. Just let me know.
• 28:00
  And we just kept it like and just stayed like that and we
• 28:03
  would FaceTime every day. She was kind of like the calm
• 28:05
  and the storm. But I would never go around her
• 28:08
  right. And you know, she she works, she
• 28:10
  worked a recovery program and was, you know, offering to
• 28:13
  introduce me to to some people in it.
• 28:15
  And, you know, so Fast forward four or five weeks down the
• 28:19
  road, it the pain had gotten bad.
• 28:23
  You know, I was, man, I had failed miserably all the way
• 28:28
  across. I, I, I, I lost the packages, I
• 28:31
  lost the money. I, I completely out of my mind.
• 28:35
  You know, I, I've now I've disappointed and upset
• 28:38
  everybody, you know, and it's like, and my whole identity was
• 28:41
  in that, you know, my whole identity was in this figure,
• 28:45
  right? And it's like, damn, now I'm
• 28:46
  really no good for nobody. And I remember I was sitting on
• 28:50
  this bench in, in riverfront in Saint Charles.
• 28:52
  And I sat there on this bench, man.
• 28:54
  And it was like the whole world came crashing down on me that
• 28:56
  day. And man, I was like, I was, I
• 29:06
  was more imprisoned that day on that bench than I had ever been
• 29:09
  in my life and in more like pain than I've ever been in my life.
• 29:15
  And I just didn't know how to make it stop, you know?
• 29:18
  And I remember calling my mom and like just, I don't know, for
• 29:23
  some type of rescuing, you know, and just to maybe hear her voice
• 29:28
  and she said, you know, Brandon, I love you, but that's all I got
• 29:32
  for you. I don't have anything else for
• 29:34
  you. You need to talk to God and hung
• 29:37
  up on me, you know, and that was like the the best thing she
• 29:42
  could have did right then. And that's exactly what I did,
• 29:45
  you know, And, and then I tried to go take my own life, you
• 29:49
  know, shortly at 30 minutes later and, and by the grace of
• 29:54
  God, it did not work. You know by the grace of God
• 29:57
  that somebody found me. Isn't that amazing though, how
• 30:01
  looking at where you are now, I think that's why it means so
• 30:05
  much. I can still see the emotion you
• 30:06
  have for talking about it because anybody who's been in
• 30:09
  that rock bottom moment and pulled yourself out, it's it's,
• 30:12
  it's, it stays with you. It's becomes part of you, how
• 30:15
  you felt at that moment. And you know, I want to get into
• 30:23
  how you started stepping out of that from that moment.
• 30:27
  It's probably a good time to, to take a break here and recognize
• 30:31
  a, a, a show sponsor 'cause I want to get back into how do
• 30:35
  you, how do you step out of that, that moment, that rock
• 30:38
  bottom moment, where, how do you, what mindset do you have to
• 30:40
  be in to get there? You know, a lot of people don't
• 30:42
  like how they show up online. Many individuals think there's
• 30:46
  no hope when it comes to managing your reputation online.
• 30:48
  On Google, there's hope. It's called the Discoverability
• 30:51
  Company, and that can help you whether you're building your
• 30:53
  reputation from scratch or you're repairing search results
• 30:56
  from a negative news story. Discoverability can also help
• 31:00
  you how you're portrayed on popular AI services like
• 31:03
  ChatGPT. To learn more, visit
• 31:06
  discoverability.co. Itsnot.com.co they're even
• 31:10
  launching a do it yourself SEO option.
• 31:12
  Of course, for individuals who want to take on their search
• 31:14
  results on their own budget and speed listeners, a Nightmare
• 31:18
  Success can take $100 off the DIYSEO course with coupon code
• 31:22
  nightmare success. And nightmare success is a
• 31:29
  sponsored by the White Collar support group, which I think I
• 31:33
  have that here, but I I don't have it in front of me.
• 31:37
  They meet every Monday at 7:00 PM Eastern Time.
• 31:42
  I'm a member of the White Collar Support Group and I can tell you
• 31:44
  it's a bunch of people helping each other for free to get
• 31:48
  through the criminal justice journey.
• 31:49
  Whether you're just starting a journey, you've made it through
• 31:51
  the other side. Also starting the expungement
• 31:56
  federal initiative.org. So if you want to go there, find
• 32:01
  out more. And it's called prisoners.org if
• 32:04
  you want to find out more about the White Collar Support Group.
• 32:08
  So getting back Brandon to that moment and I think even somebody
• 32:12
  said to you in the the paramedic said something to you about
• 32:16
  you've got something more to do or something like that in that
• 32:21
  crazy moment you said. Brandon, I'm supposed to tell
• 32:23
  you God's not done with you. He's got a plan for you.
• 32:26
  That's what he said. That's big.
• 32:28
  That's huge. Like in a moment like that,
• 32:34
  Brandon, what did you after that happened?
• 32:37
  What, how did you start stepping up?
• 32:39
  What was the mindset that you found?
• 32:41
  Where was the strength that you started stepping forward?
• 32:45
  Well, it was life or death. I was in a life or death fight
• 32:51
  and, and still am, you know, so the, you know, I woke up at my
• 32:56
  mom's house. Of course, I, you know, I, they
• 32:57
  took me to the hospital. I wake up at my mom's house a
• 32:59
  couple days later and next thing you know, I'm on my way to this
• 33:03
  meeting of recovery. And, you know, I didn't
• 33:08
  necessarily want to go, but all the there was no other options,
• 33:14
  right? And like, I'm just trying to
• 33:17
  figure out at this point in time, like how, how to be OK.
• 33:21
  Like, how do I not crawl out of my skin?
• 33:23
  How do I not use, you know, how do I not drink?
• 33:27
  And just trying to figure out how to be OK.
• 33:29
  Which probably just feels like a totally foreign land to you.
• 33:32
  Yeah, it was. But here's what I had on my
• 33:36
  side. I was completely beaten.
• 33:39
  I was completely broken. And, you know, I you were ready.
• 33:44
  I was. People talk about, oh, I
• 33:45
  surrendered. I can't say I surrendered, but I
• 33:48
  can definitely say I was beaten into submission.
• 33:50
  Yeah. And I was ready, You know,
• 33:51
  Please tell me what to do because I clearly don't know.
• 33:55
  I mean, I clearly cannot make decisions for my own life.
• 33:58
  Totally home. Yeah.
• 34:00
  So that was man, I, I just started I, you know, it's like
• 34:05
  I, well, I kind of didn't have a choice.
• 34:07
  Like I couldn't even die, right? Couldn't get that right.
• 34:11
  Right? Thank God.
• 34:12
  Right, Yeah, exactly. But so it's like, man, there's
• 34:15
  no, there's no Plan B, right. I was told like, if you have any
• 34:19
  other bright ideas that you think are going to like be your
• 34:22
  fix, you have to go try that because like this, this is going
• 34:27
  to work. But yet you have to be
• 34:28
  completely willing to do whatever it takes and, and, and
• 34:32
  get rid of all your own thinking essentially.
• 34:35
  And so man, I went all in in this program and it was like, it
• 34:38
  saved my life. It saved my life, man.
• 34:41
  And you know, it was, I never thought there was a solution.
• 34:46
  I never thought there was a solution to the addiction.
• 34:50
  I never thought there was a solution to the hopelessness.
• 34:52
  I never thought there was a solution to this path, though.
• 34:55
  Like I only thought there was one path.
• 34:57
  And. I thought I had to have like no
• 35:00
  choice. And so it's like now, man, to
• 35:03
  entertain there actually might be a solution because before,
• 35:07
  well, there can't be a solution. I'm, I'm 34 years old.
• 35:09
  I would have figured it out by now, right?
• 35:12
  And, and so, but to be open to that, that there is a solution.
• 35:16
  And you know, it was so important for me, I had to cut
• 35:20
  all ties and like, not like, Hey, I can only talk to you
• 35:24
  every once in a while or when I see it's like it had to be a
• 35:26
  hard line. And that was.
• 35:28
  Extremely hard for me. That was like getting a divorce
• 35:30
  for me, you know, that was like that was my that was my whole
• 35:34
  family. That was everything for me.
• 35:37
  And you know what, you know, so that was extremely hard for me.
• 35:41
  But what I somebody had me do was right out the
• 35:45
  characteristics I was looking for in a person because I was
• 35:48
  told I had to start surrounding myself with people who had the
• 35:51
  things I wanted and, and, and first and foremost, it like it's
• 35:56
  great advice, by the way. None of the shit you can touch.
• 35:59
  And see is on it people that had the integrity, the relationship
• 36:02
  with God, they had the family like those, you know, all of
• 36:04
  those things and figuring out how they got there.
• 36:08
  And, you know, and I was told just to keep a open mindset and,
• 36:13
  and just to just to try to do the next right thing just, and
• 36:16
  then after that, try to do the next right thing after that.
• 36:18
  And it was like, man, it was so incremental, right?
• 36:21
  And. And I remember, you know, when
• 36:24
  like we didn't talk about like moments and days, you know,
• 36:29
  where day, you know, your sobriety date or whatever that
• 36:31
  is. It's like, yes, that's
• 36:32
  important. But I remember I, I don't
• 36:35
  remember what date it was, but I remember exactly where I was
• 36:38
  standing, like the first time I looked in the mirror and didn't
• 36:41
  hate myself. I remember the first
• 36:46
  conversation I ever had with, you know, my in laws and I
• 36:51
  didn't have to lie to him. That was the first conversation.
• 36:54
  I'd ever met somebody's parents and didn't have to lie to him
• 36:57
  about who? That's deep.
• 36:59
  You know, and I remember. That feeling walking out of
• 37:02
  there and it was like, man, that was the stuff that started
• 37:08
  happening in those next months, you know, and, and I'm going to
• 37:12
  meetings every night. I'm doing like I'm in a spirit,
• 37:15
  I'm in a spiritual fight for my life.
• 37:18
  And but you're doing the work, right?
• 37:21
  I'm I'm all. In on developing the spiritual
• 37:23
  foundation and you know, I went get then got back.
• 37:29
  I got my job back in the union. I went and, you know, started, I
• 37:31
  was hanging Hardy board siding on a new construction site.
• 37:34
  And you know, it was, I was there for, I don't know, a few
• 37:38
  months. And I remember it was like
• 37:40
  January when I got on out there, maybe a little before that.
• 37:43
  But I'm, I'm out there and I'm working 50-60 hours a week.
• 37:48
  You know, I'm having to get rides there.
• 37:49
  I don't have my license or anything like that.
• 37:51
  I don't have anything. I'm living at my mom's house.
• 37:53
  I got a 300 credit score. She just had to buy me a cell
• 37:55
  phone. That's where I'm at.
• 37:58
  And, and I'm looking around thinking like my, the neighbors
• 38:02
  across the street were probably my age, you know, and I'm
• 38:05
  looking around at everybody else my age thinking it's just going
• 38:07
  to take me so long to get caught up.
• 38:10
  And so I wrote this. Everything what I considered to
• 38:13
  caught up to be, you know, and I wrote it all out and by my
• 38:18
  plans, it was going to take me like 5 to maybe 7 years at the
• 38:22
  most. What I consider caught up to be
• 38:24
  and it wasn't, I wanted to be able, you know, first it was
• 38:27
  first the, you know, the relationship with God on there
• 38:30
  that I wanted to be able to heal this relationship.
• 38:32
  I want to be able to save this amount, buy this truck, get my
• 38:35
  license, get insurance, you know, that type of stuff, right?
• 38:39
  And then eventually it's OK. I want to be able to buy a home
• 38:43
  and then be able to buy an investment property.
• 38:45
  That was what was on there as far as tangible things.
• 38:48
  He wrote it down. I wrote it down and I went and
• 38:51
  showed him with the mentor I was working with at the time.
• 38:55
  And he's, and he went over all of them.
• 38:56
  He's like, man, those are awesome, you know, and he's
• 38:59
  like, but here's the deal. He's like, if you don't, you're,
• 39:02
  if you don't establish the truly priceless assets, you're going
• 39:04
  to die and you're not going to get any of that shit.
• 39:07
  And if you happen to get lucky and get some of it, you're going
• 39:09
  to lose it in any way. And I believe them, you know,
• 39:12
  and I just really, I went all in on developing those, those,
• 39:16
  those priceless assets and doing the maintenance required every
• 39:20
  day. And, you know, and I, and I
• 39:22
  didn't lose sight of those. I, I, I stayed keeping them
• 39:26
  fresh in my mind. And it was so crazy because it
• 39:28
  was like, man, just stuff started happening.
• 39:30
  And it's like, damn, how'd that truck get in the driveway?
• 39:32
  How'd that happen? And it was, man, I looked up and
• 39:35
  everything, I looked up in 16 months and everything that was
• 39:40
  on that list that I thought was going to take me 6-7 years,
• 39:43
  every one of them. And it was like, that's when I
• 39:46
  realized, like a lot, I learned a lot over that and one,
• 39:50
  realizing the power of intentionality and just knowing
• 39:53
  what we want and, and, and then, but I also realized a lot of
• 39:57
  things in this first season, man, fuck, try not to get
• 40:04
  emotional. And one of the things it's like
• 40:08
  that I'm the only one that binds me to my past and.
• 40:14
  If I can't get over that, I'm always going to stay there,
• 40:17
  right? And so like you said earlier, I
• 40:20
  really had to start looking at like, I can't be a victim and a
• 40:23
  victor at the same time. And I don't like being a victim.
• 40:26
  And that was all your strength. Man, I was a victim.
• 40:29
  For so long and really honestly, probably up until like, I don't
• 40:35
  know, a couple months after I came home, you know, that I was
• 40:37
  really like actually willing to like to take ownership over it.
• 40:41
  Like, man, there's one person who's responsible for the
• 40:43
  condition of my life right now. That's me.
• 40:45
  It doesn't matter what, you know, who did what, you know,
• 40:48
  30-40 years ago, right? And so it was like, and it like
• 40:51
  I was mad at the state and they did this and then sat and it was
• 40:54
  like, no, like it was all me. Like it was all me.
• 40:58
  And until I like, once I really started taking that perception
• 41:02
  on it, it was then I was able to like Start learning that from,
• 41:06
  on a different level from not only the past experience, but
• 41:10
  definitely what I was experiencing today.
• 41:12
  And, but in that time, you know, it was like, so I'm working out
• 41:16
  in the union. I'm working out in the union for
• 41:19
  like 4 or five months. And it's like it's things are
• 41:23
  going good, right? I got the, I got the truck, you
• 41:25
  know, I'm, I'm, I'm in recovery. I'm things are going well.
• 41:28
  Yeah. And but it's like, man, I'm also
• 41:30
  at the same time not feeling like this is where I belong out
• 41:33
  here. And I developed like carpal
• 41:35
  tunnel, like overnight from not using those muscles for so long.
• 41:39
  So they send me to the doctor that well, back up.
• 41:43
  I worked for through it for months, man.
• 41:45
  Like bought every damn hand massager cream and nothing's
• 41:48
  working. And, you know, finally I go to
• 41:51
  my foreman, which I did not want to do that, You know, of course
• 41:53
  that they, they look, they frown upon that.
• 41:55
  You know, it's like, fine, man, yeah, go to the doctor.
• 41:57
  I go to the doctor and they're like, we're going to run these
• 41:59
  tests. We'll get the results back in 30
• 42:01
  days. Go sit at home and we'll let you
• 42:02
  know if we're going to take care of it.
• 42:04
  I'm like, and you can't work and like that doesn't sound great.
• 42:08
  And I go home and I was like, well, I can't just sit here.
• 42:11
  And so I at that point in time, I started answering like next
• 42:14
  door apps like for 100 dollars, $200, like whatever the handyman
• 42:19
  job is, right? And, and I just start stacking
• 42:21
  these up and you know, it's like, next thing you know, it's
• 42:24
  like, I'm, I'm making more out here than I was in the union as
• 42:28
  a journeyman Carpenter. And you know, it's like, OK, it
• 42:31
  happened for a week. Let's see if we do 2 weeks.
• 42:33
  And you know, it keeps going. And it's like a few weeks in,
• 42:35
  you know, I looked at Kelly, my wife, now girlfriend at the
• 42:38
  time. And it's like, you know, I don't
• 42:40
  think I'm supposed to go back. I think we're supposed to start
• 42:42
  a company. Got in that amazing how that.
• 42:45
  Happened, though, you were told to go home and not work.
• 42:48
  Yeah. And you figured out another way
• 42:50
  to work. Yeah.
• 42:51
  That created this idea that maybe, maybe I could do this on
• 42:54
  my own. Yeah.
• 42:55
  I could create something. And you know, it's like, I
• 42:57
  think. You know, I think we're supposed
• 42:58
  to start a company and, you know, she said.
• 43:01
  Let's go. I believe in you.
• 43:03
  That's huge. And I had not heard that.
• 43:05
  Before, Yeah, not. And I, you know, I know.
• 43:08
  I'm sure my mom and dad said that, but I just not heard.
• 43:10
  I hadn't heard it, you know? That hit solid.
• 43:13
  And man. If she wouldn't have said that,
• 43:17
  like if she wouldn't have said that at that time, like who
• 43:19
  knows? Like, who knows, Probably
• 43:21
  wouldn't be here if it was like, I think you should probably play
• 43:24
  it, say like, we need the insurance.
• 43:26
  Yeah, we got to have it, yeah. And.
• 43:28
  But so at that point in time, man, I just went all in and, and
• 43:33
  I like next thing you know, it's $100, you know, it's $100 hour
• 43:36
  jobs $200 or $200 jobs 300. And it just keeps climbing
• 43:41
  right. And, and I remember there was
• 43:44
  this, this customer and she was a woman, probably about 75 years
• 43:49
  old. And it reminded me of the
• 43:51
  notebook because she would go see her husband every day in a
• 43:54
  nursing home. And she's, she had a villa and
• 43:59
  I, I'm replacing the decking on her deck and there's no stairs
• 44:03
  around back. And I'm just, we're just walking
• 44:05
  through the house and it's about a three or $4000 job and just a
• 44:09
  super, super sweet lady. And, and you know, she was
• 44:12
  hesitant. She's been burnt in the past,
• 44:14
  but just like a lady, I was like, I'm happier going with me
• 44:16
  because I know I'm going to make it like, I know you're going to
• 44:18
  get the service you're looking for.
• 44:21
  And, and so with that being said, you know, it's the next,
• 44:25
  it's the first day and it's probably a two or three day job,
• 44:29
  first day on the job and I'm there in the morning.
• 44:31
  I get going for about an hour and she walks outside and says,
• 44:34
  Hey, I'm getting ready to leave. If you go anywhere, just lock up
• 44:37
  for me. And, you know, she did and she,
• 44:40
  she left and I, I went inside and now and she's like, you
• 44:44
  know, use the bathroom whenever I went inside and I was using
• 44:46
  the bathroom and I remember washing my hands and looking in
• 44:50
  the mirror and it's like, man, this old lady only knew if she
• 44:53
  only knew who she left in this house.
• 44:55
  And it was like the very next thing that popped in my head was
• 44:59
  like, she does now. She knows exactly who she left
• 45:02
  her house. And that was like a, that was a
• 45:05
  moment for me for sure. And because like, those two
• 45:10
  voices pop up all the time and whatever one we start paying
• 45:14
  attention to more is going to be the dominant one, right?
• 45:17
  And it was like, I, I, I replay that to myself all the time.
• 45:21
  You know, it's, it's funny. Brandon, you say that 'cause I,
• 45:24
  I had some guy that he said something very, very similar to
• 45:27
  what you said. And he said you have these
• 45:29
  crazy, you know, voices that you've got.
• 45:31
  And he said what I learned to do was he said it's like driving a
• 45:33
  car and you you let the crazy person sit in the front seat and
• 45:38
  they get to change the radio stations and do all that.
• 45:40
  And he said, I just decided the crazy person's good at be in
• 45:44
  there. I'm just going to have to make
• 45:45
  him sit in the back and I'm changing the radio station and
• 45:48
  I'm driving. And I thought, that's a pretty
• 45:49
  good analogy. They're always there.
• 45:52
  That's. You know, somebody, the somebody
• 45:54
  had told me years ago, you know, it's like being very be very
• 45:58
  careful about listening to yourself, but be very
• 46:01
  intentional about talking to yourself.
• 46:05
  That's one thing I have to do consistently on a regular basis
• 46:08
  is like speak out loud with whatever The thing is.
• 46:11
  And a lot of times I got to speak over the voices that's
• 46:14
  going on in my head. So, you know, I got my wife like
• 46:16
  who who yelling at, but no, it was you know, so as I was going
• 46:23
  through this and starting the company, you know, it really
• 46:26
  started to take off and I man, I had the job started getting
• 46:29
  bigger and bigger and I remember was it roofing immediately?
• 46:33
  No. It was.
• 46:34
  Everything. Anything.
• 46:36
  Anything you'd pay me? For right?
• 46:38
  And and it was like Brandon J everything, yes.
• 46:40
  Yeah, kitchens, beds. Basements, decks, and at that
• 46:43
  point in time, especially in the first couple months, I mean, I'd
• 46:46
  change, come change your light bulbs if you'd pay me for it,
• 46:48
  you know, and, and literally anything.
• 46:51
  And it was, you know, so as we're, as we're going through
• 46:55
  that first year, you know, that now like we're by the end of
• 46:59
  that year, you know, we're doing a lot of decks, some basement
• 47:02
  renovations, stuff like that, remodels, kitchen remodels, full
• 47:04
  kitchen remodels, like it's, it's going well.
• 47:07
  And, and I remember, man, I just like, I remember just, I, I knew
• 47:14
  I, I'm making more money than I ever thought possible, but this
• 47:16
  isn't like where I wanted to stay.
• 47:18
  It's not about the money. It's like that, this keeping
• 47:20
  this machine going and growing. It's not where I, I felt called
• 47:23
  to, right? And so I want to, and it, I
• 47:27
  broke it down to the simplest form possible, which is
• 47:29
  residential roofing, right? You know, it's a, a roof, you
• 47:33
  know, it's, we're going to be done most of the time in a day,
• 47:36
  you know, and maybe 2 days that basement, we're going to be in
• 47:39
  and out of your home for months, right?
• 47:40
  A lot of times. And, and really, so we stopped
• 47:43
  doing everything but roofing and I focused on really getting down
• 47:46
  those systems and really building a brand behind that and
• 47:50
  stop doing everything else, you know, and at that point in time,
• 47:53
  that first year, I say I, I play, used to play a game,
• 47:55
  what's the least amount of money I could survive on?
• 47:57
  I had it down to like 120 bucks a week, right?
• 48:00
  And I'm just saving, saving, stacking, stacking.
• 48:02
  And because I, I, I saw a bigger vision and I knew that we needed
• 48:06
  capital for it. And you know, that first year
• 48:09
  I'm wearing my tool pouches, you know, 1213 hours a day, doing
• 48:12
  all the back end work at night. And now after this first year,
• 48:15
  I'm about to put the tool pouches down, switch to Subs and
• 48:18
  really focus on sales and marketing and building the
• 48:20
  brand. And and that's, and that's why
• 48:22
  and started knocking doors, you know, with I never had any sales
• 48:26
  experience and just started knocking doors and doing.
• 48:29
  That's an experience, isn't it? Yeah.
• 48:31
  I I. Remember when I was?
• 48:33
  A kid, I was 2223 years old down in Texas and there's so many
• 48:37
  different things that happens when you are knocking doors.
• 48:41
  And it's also something that you figure out, You know, you're
• 48:45
  talking about systems and if you pick up certain things and you
• 48:49
  create systems that you could duplicate.
• 48:51
  I had this lady that she was down in Caldwell, TX and we, you
• 48:56
  know, we tracked all the numbers and everything and she was
• 48:58
  getting into every door. I thought I got to go ride with
• 49:01
  her. What in the world is she doing?
• 49:04
  And I found out that she wasn't using our language that we
• 49:07
  taught. She was saying I'm Sherry Elster
• 49:11
  and I'm from so and so Funeral Home and I just need to come
• 49:13
  inside and visit with you for a few minutes.
• 49:15
  I thought, damn, she never asked him to come in.
• 49:18
  She needs to come in. And all of a sudden.
• 49:22
  That person at the door is not saying yes or no.
• 49:24
  It's. And that's what little kids do,
• 49:26
  you know, I need to go to the park.
• 49:27
  I need to go swim. And we changed everything, you
• 49:30
  know, overnight on that. But it's funny how you know,
• 49:32
  you, you gain a whole nother sense of humility.
• 49:36
  Yeah. And but you also gain confidence
• 49:39
  when you do for sure. That's like.
• 49:41
  Whenever I started out there, man, I knocked doors for like
• 49:44
  the first like month, month and a half and didn't get a deal,
• 49:47
  but I just kept trying the new things, right?
• 49:50
  And by the end of my career out there, I would literally go on
• 49:53
  like 3 week long streaks where I close every person I talk to.
• 49:56
  And one of the big things I stopped doing was I stopped
• 49:58
  asking questions and just politely telling them what we're
• 50:00
  doing, you know, and, and that's what we teach our entire team
• 50:04
  now. And that's.
• 50:05
  So with that being said, man, over the next couple years, I
• 50:09
  ran as hard as I could out in that field, right?
• 50:11
  And, and knocking doors, working sun up to sundown and you know,
• 50:15
  we building the company, scaling the company.
• 50:18
  And you know, I'd have like anywhere four or five, maybe 6
• 50:20
  sales consultants, you know, and at that time, you know, we're in
• 50:24
  the first 2-3 years, you know, it's man, I'm getting asked a
• 50:29
  lot. Like Brandon, you know, why do
• 50:30
  you care if I drink every night? Why do you care if I go to the
• 50:32
  gym? Why do you care if I save money
• 50:34
  or how much money I make All the things, right?
• 50:37
  And you know, you're being unreasonable, you're expecting
• 50:39
  too much. And it used to make me question
• 50:42
  myself because it is like, man, I, I really do truly do my best
• 50:45
  to live by all this shit I say and talk about, right?
• 50:48
  Do I do that? Do I body that right?
• 50:50
  And do I do a perfect? Absolutely not.
• 50:52
  But I, that is my intention every day.
• 50:54
  And, you know, so it used to make me question myself, myself
• 50:57
  as a leader. You know, Brandon, you're
• 50:58
  expecting too much. And I learned through
• 51:00
  experience, man, over the years, I wasn't expecting too much.
• 51:02
  I was just looking for it in the wrong people.
• 51:04
  Right. And, you know, at this time, I
• 51:07
  remember I was started working with the professional coach
• 51:11
  right about this time. And, you know, he's like, you
• 51:13
  know, Brandon, where you at and where you're trying to go?
• 51:15
  And then the next question, what's that culture like?
• 51:18
  The culture's OK, but so and so's got it messed up.
• 51:20
  Yeah. You know, Brandon's culture is
• 51:23
  only what you tolerate. And that was like a gut punch
• 51:25
  for me at that time. You know, culture is only what
• 51:28
  you tolerate. So he doesn't have it messed up.
• 51:29
  You have it messed up. Yeah.
• 51:31
  And it's. It's, you know, you said you
• 51:33
  played sports. I played sports.
• 51:34
  One guy can screw up a team for sure.
• 51:36
  And it wasn't it. It was, it was kind of everybody
• 51:40
  and I had let it get there, right?
• 51:41
  And me just not knowing, thinking, you know, I wasn't
• 51:45
  thinking correctly. So as soon as I got some
• 51:47
  perspective, right, and he's like, you know, right now 25
• 51:50
  character characteristics you're looking for in a teammate and
• 51:53
  then go remove. And then I call him back and you
• 51:56
  know, with that 25 characteristics, he's like, all
• 51:58
  right, I want you to go remove everything essentially.
• 52:00
  That's not that. And and I did that, you know, it
• 52:03
  takes some big balls. He cleared it down to 0.
• 52:07
  To get back to what you were looking for, well, it was and
• 52:09
  and. Really down to 1 and ended up he
• 52:11
  ended up having to get removed later anyway kind of just
• 52:14
  unhealthy loyalty. But regardless, was I dialed in
• 52:17
  exactly what I was looking for right?
• 52:19
  And, and just this vicious, this relentless rinse and repeat
• 52:23
  cycle of finding people that fits that mold, right?
• 52:27
  And, and man, and having a low tolerance for anything but that
• 52:31
  because I saw the opportunity in, in, especially in all the
• 52:35
  positions. But the one I'm speaking on
• 52:37
  specifically now is in that sales consultant position that
• 52:40
  if somebody really went all in on this, the impact that could
• 52:43
  have on their life. Absolutely.
• 52:44
  It's like, man, I only want to work with people that are
• 52:47
  willing to go all in and stay all in, right?
• 52:49
  You know, and I only want the top producers and that's it.
• 52:52
  And so and we still hold true to that, you know, to where our
• 52:55
  bottom is other people's tops for sure, right?
• 52:58
  And and just that standard inside of our company.
• 53:01
  And it's not about making the most money, it's about us just
• 53:05
  all truly doing our best and becoming our best, right?
• 53:08
  And whatever the result of that is, the result, right, You know,
• 53:11
  but not so we just we, we focus a lot on the personal
• 53:14
  development because people are making a lot of money, right.
• 53:17
  And, and I saw at that time, you know, did the kind of a high
• 53:20
  level overview and like nobody was developing the people and
• 53:25
  the Super low level of success kind of plagued our industry
• 53:28
  where people would, you know, triple their income, you know,
• 53:31
  maybe they start making 100 or 150, whatever, and they made
• 53:33
  that in six months. Well, now they're just going to
• 53:35
  take the next six months off, right.
• 53:37
  And then they do look up in five years in their exact same place
• 53:39
  in life, right, right. And so we, we really want to
• 53:42
  work with the people that are going to take full advantage of
• 53:44
  it and, and truly go all in and stay all in.
• 53:46
  And I want people to be able to look up in five years and like
• 53:49
  way before five years, but like year by year, starting to be
• 53:52
  able to live life more on their terms, right?
• 53:54
  And, and if, if they're going to use this as a vehicle,
• 53:57
  maximizing it, right? And, and, and so we, and if they
• 54:00
  choose to use this as a vehicle, we want to give them all the
• 54:03
  tools to not only be successful, like in the roofing industry.
• 54:06
  No, you're building a self development.
• 54:08
  Company, right? Yeah, it really is.
• 54:10
  But that that is what makes it's a really great company though,
• 54:13
  you know, and, and I think people, the right people really
• 54:16
  recognize that and they're drawn to it and then they thrive in
• 54:19
  it. But it took a lot and it takes a
• 54:22
  lot as a leader to recognize what you want and then build
• 54:25
  that because it's easier to just kind of let it go, let it flow.
• 54:29
  Everything's kind of OK. But you and the other thing that
• 54:34
  you brought up, I don't want to gloss over taking coaching.
• 54:39
  You know, there is so many people that don't want to humble
• 54:45
  themselves and ask for help if something that they don't know.
• 54:48
  And but if you do that, God, it's fantastic.
• 54:52
  Yeah, that's I. I'll I'll probably have, I mean,
• 54:55
  I, I will probably have coached the rest of my life, you know,
• 54:59
  so and from my experience in this right, and I've been in
• 55:02
  recovery. So I feel like, you know,
• 55:04
  recovery is a personal development program that your
• 55:07
  life depends on, you know, and it is like the, the, every
• 55:12
  personal development program I've been a part of all is the
• 55:15
  same core principles and, and, and, and core values essentially
• 55:20
  as, as those 12 steps in recovery.
• 55:22
  But with that being said, I realized like, OK, like in the
• 55:26
  first like 2, there's like year 2 between year two and three,
• 55:30
  there's like, all of a sudden like we have this like five
• 55:32
  $7,000,000 machine. It was like, holy crap, how'd
• 55:34
  this happen? Now?
• 55:35
  What do I like, if I don't figure out how to do like
• 55:38
  something with this and manage it, like it's going to all come
• 55:40
  crumbling down. And so I, I started flying
• 55:44
  across the country to force myself in the rooms of people
• 55:47
  who are there, you know, who were where I wanted to get it
• 55:50
  around the people that are doing.
• 55:51
  It exactly and I and I joined the.
• 55:53
  Mastermind Apex down in Texas and you know, Ryan Steuman ran
• 55:56
  that runs that and that was super beneficial for me.
• 56:00
  And you know, it's like the personal development aspect of
• 56:07
  somebody told me for anything to get better.
• 56:09
  The first coach I started working with, and this is before
• 56:11
  I started flying down Texas, for anything to get better, I had to
• 56:14
  get better. And I started, I looked at like
• 56:17
  I, I didn't look like I owned the company.
• 56:19
  I looked at it and still do. Like I get the opportunity to
• 56:21
  steward it. And if I stop being a good
• 56:23
  steward of it, I'm going to lose it.
• 56:25
  And part of being a good steward of it is I have to go retain the
• 56:28
  information that these people need to, to, to be able to
• 56:31
  continue to grow and, and not to me, like me and myself obviously
• 56:35
  as well. And, but so it's man, I had to
• 56:38
  go figure it out, like had to go get this information so I could
• 56:41
  pass it back down. So I started flying down to
• 56:43
  Texas and you know, there was a lot of roofing contractors in
• 56:46
  that home service industry, contractors and again, people,
• 56:50
  owners of companies that were where I wanted to be and that
• 56:54
  were willing to share their information with me, were
• 56:56
  willing to help me, you know, and, and that was like, but I
• 56:59
  had to what be willing to be honest about where I'm really at
• 57:02
  and what I'm really struggling with, right.
• 57:04
  And so that's man, I've like I said, I was flying down to
• 57:07
  flying to Texas monthly, you know, for the a couple years
• 57:10
  and, and, and I still stay heavily involved in personal
• 57:14
  development, but that was so, so important for me to get next to
• 57:19
  the people who were there or had had done it already, you know,
• 57:23
  and you just, you just whipped out a.
• 57:24
  Whole bunch of good stuff there for tips of people who want to
• 57:27
  build because you can't stay in a box.
• 57:31
  You've got to reach out and get better grow knowledge of and
• 57:36
  then bring that back and implement right.
• 57:38
  But you can't implement once you find it and and you know what it
• 57:41
  is that you need it and then you bring it back and you implement
• 57:44
  it and then then it grows even bigger, right?
• 57:46
  And that's. Like, man, I don't know, when
• 57:49
  setting the ego completely to the side, you have to have to.
• 57:53
  And I do believe, and there's still ego.
• 57:55
  You know, people who are in business and they're growing
• 57:57
  companies, there's ego, but but you have to set it aside to
• 58:01
  humble yourself, to go ask for things that you don't know.
• 58:04
  And people who are at the top of the food chain, it's really hard
• 58:06
  to do. Yeah.
• 58:07
  And like 1. Thing I realized too early on is
• 58:10
  that one having the humility and to to know what I don't know
• 58:16
  yeah and to admit what I don't know yeah right.
• 58:19
  It's like, like people think, oh, I don't want to sound
• 58:21
  stupid. I don't want to look less than
• 58:23
  or weak or whatever The thing is.
• 58:24
  Yeah. And it's like I'm.
• 58:26
  So whenever we, that at the end of that first year, whenever we
• 58:30
  stop doing, uh, all the other stuff and just started doing
• 58:33
  roofing, like I said, I didn't know any of the systems.
• 58:35
  I, I didn't know, I know how to install a roof, but I didn't
• 58:38
  know what to charge a square foot, right.
• 58:40
  And, and there's a lot of things like that I didn't know about
• 58:42
  roofing. And so I wrote down a list of
• 58:44
  questions and I went and knocked on every roofing company door
• 58:47
  door in our market and to sit down with whoever would sit down
• 58:50
  with me with the questions. Yeah.
• 58:52
  And some of them would sit down with me and some would tell me
• 58:54
  to kick rocks. Yeah.
• 58:55
  But The thing is, I'm still doing that same thing today.
• 58:58
  Yeah. It's just on much bigger company
• 59:00
  doors. Yeah.
• 59:01
  And it's like, well, Brandon, it seems like you got it kind of
• 59:03
  figured out by right now. Yeah, I gotta figure it out to.
• 59:06
  Here, Yeah, I got what I got figured out.
• 59:07
  Last year, yeah, yeah, like, yeah, I'm in uncharted
• 59:10
  territories, yeah, right. But the other thing that.
• 59:12
  You've got that. That will not leave you is you
• 59:15
  have good systems in place. And if you have good systems in
• 59:18
  place and those grow and duplicate, then you know what?
• 59:21
  Yeah, you can do at all and I think a.
• 59:25
  Big thing like, and I want to touch on it too really quick is,
• 59:29
  you know, it's like that's what's awesome about the the
• 59:33
  world and country we live in. And you know, for people that
• 59:35
  are inside, like I said earlier, we're the only ones that bind us
• 59:38
  to our past and the beautiful thing about the country we live
• 59:41
  in. If we're willing to be honest
• 59:43
  and do the right thing and truly bust our ass and have the faith
• 59:47
  like man, we can achieve damned or whatever we want out here.
• 59:50
  Huge, huge point. And I think the other thing
• 59:52
  that's big Brandon, is you're really good at telling your
• 59:54
  story. I think when people get out, and
• 59:57
  I actually, I don't think that's just for people to get out.
• 59:59
  For anybody who's stuck in a prison of their own mind, you've
• 1:00:02
  got to be able to step out and and own your story.
• 1:00:05
  Because if you don't own your story, somebody else owns your
• 1:00:07
  story. And that limits you to whatever
• 1:00:10
  you're going to do. But if you own it, you come to
• 1:00:12
  grips with it and you can tell it, it, it helps you grow and
• 1:00:16
  and it doesn't limit you. And I think that's.
• 1:00:18
  So many people are afraid that they're going to be found out
• 1:00:23
  and and the biggest thing is to be found out yourself and then
• 1:00:27
  and then share it out to whatever to get whatever you
• 1:00:29
  need that was and to add. Something on that, you know, I,
• 1:00:32
  it was years before I shared my story, like publicly.
• 1:00:36
  I would share it in the recovery community or, you know, out at a
• 1:00:38
  men's house or something like that in that type of
• 1:00:42
  environment. But I was not going to share it
• 1:00:44
  publicly for I was going to do it, but I, I needed more time.
• 1:00:48
  I needed more time to show the world it had more.
• 1:00:52
  I wasn't. That person any longer, right?
• 1:00:54
  And I had I constantly had a couple people in my ears like,
• 1:00:56
  no, man, I need to Share your story.
• 1:00:58
  We want to go on this ride with you.
• 1:00:59
  We've already done so much because this is about, you know,
• 1:01:02
  three years and four years and life is looking awesome, right?
• 1:01:05
  Like beautiful home, thriving business, beautiful wife,
• 1:01:08
  family, everything. And you know, it was, I ended up
• 1:01:11
  putting the story out there. I had a guy, whatever he, he
• 1:01:16
  taped a bunch of my mug shots. You know, he printed about,
• 1:01:20
  wrote a paragraph like essentially we're robbing the
• 1:01:23
  insurance companies and all this, you know, unlawful stuff
• 1:01:26
  on it and went and taped them to all the doors in the
• 1:01:29
  neighborhoods we were working on.
• 1:01:31
  I had one of my guys call me super upset and he's like, man,
• 1:01:33
  I'm about to ruin your day. And I definitely was upset, but
• 1:01:38
  you know, I, I, I call the mentors like, all right, I'm
• 1:01:41
  sharing my story online tomorrow.
• 1:01:43
  I won't ever deal with this again, right?
• 1:01:45
  And he's like, OK, let's talk about it.
• 1:01:48
  I, I like the idea because we talked about sharing my story
• 1:01:51
  before. He's like, I like the idea of
• 1:01:52
  your sharing your story, but if but why are you doing it?
• 1:01:56
  Because if you're doing it as a tactical maneuver to get in
• 1:01:58
  front of some stuff, I don't think you're going to get the
• 1:02:01
  result you're looking for. So maybe pray about it for a
• 1:02:04
  couple days and let's revisit. And, and I took the suggestion
• 1:02:09
  and in the meantime, I had somebody suggest to do this
• 1:02:11
  closer competition like a week later.
• 1:02:14
  And I was like, man, that's it. And I was sharing your story,
• 1:02:16
  right? But the whole point is, is I
• 1:02:18
  shared my story, the good, the bad, the ugly PG version, of
• 1:02:22
  course, out there to everybody. And I knew that some people
• 1:02:27
  wouldn't like it, but I also believe that a lot of people
• 1:02:29
  wouldn't. And it was like this.
• 1:02:32
  It was so the second I put it out there, man, it was
• 1:02:36
  immediately like that £100 backpack I've been carrying
• 1:02:39
  around all of a sudden felt significantly lighter and it
• 1:02:43
  gave me it brought me to a level with my team because I it's not
• 1:02:48
  like I I would lie about it. I wouldn't offer it up.
• 1:02:50
  Yeah, right, talked about right. And so it like it just brought
• 1:02:54
  me to be able to lead my team and like the with on a genuine
• 1:02:58
  level, genuine, vulnerable all. Real.
• 1:03:00
  Yeah. And it was like.
• 1:03:01
  Man, it just like magnified all of it in a really good way.
• 1:03:05
  Yeah. And, and it was like,
• 1:03:07
  simultaneously it was like 90% of the city started cheering us
• 1:03:11
  on. Yeah. 10% started hating, Yeah.
• 1:03:14
  And and you know what? That that.
• 1:03:15
  The the thing about comeback stories is people love comeback
• 1:03:18
  stories. Yeah, but there's certain people
• 1:03:19
  that never liked what you were doing in the 1st place.
• 1:03:22
  And they'll always be haters, right?
• 1:03:24
  And there's no way you'll ever satisfy them.
• 1:03:26
  But man, there's a whole bunch of people that love seeing
• 1:03:28
  somebody grab hold, make something.
• 1:03:32
  Nothing's been easy, but you went ahead and gritted it out
• 1:03:34
  and, and, and, and there's a whole bunch of people that are
• 1:03:37
  also benefiting from you finding yourself because this is a great
• 1:03:41
  company and, and, and a lot of families are benefiting from you
• 1:03:47
  feeling good about yourself and, and being intentional and, and,
• 1:03:51
  and knowing what you want. And if you don't know all the
• 1:03:54
  answers, you're going out and find out, But it all helps, not
• 1:03:57
  just you, but it's helping all the people that are with you.
• 1:03:59
  And that's, that's a, that's an impact thing.
• 1:04:01
  That's, that's, you know, you know, I've always told my girls,
• 1:04:05
  I got 3 girls and I see whatever you do, just make a difference,
• 1:04:09
  whatever that is, just just make a difference with it and you'll
• 1:04:13
  be OK. And, and that's what you're
• 1:04:15
  doing, Brandon, with everything that's happened with you, which
• 1:04:19
  I should probably ask you 'cause I ask everybody this question.
• 1:04:22
  When we come to this part in the interviews, all this stuff that
• 1:04:28
  happened to you, you know, from your kid, the challenges and
• 1:04:31
  going through and, and, and, and, and then finding this thing
• 1:04:37
  that has made you feel the way you do now.
• 1:04:39
  What do you think's your biggest take away through all of this?
• 1:04:42
  To everybody that listens to this show, that's.
• 1:04:47
  You, we are only, we are the only ones that bind us to our
• 1:04:53
  past And man, at the end of the day, we can have anything we're
• 1:05:00
  willing to work for out here. And it's man, don't stay stuck
• 1:05:06
  in that problem. Don't stay stuck in that cycle.
• 1:05:09
  Have that courage and, and, and figure out what it is that you
• 1:05:12
  want and just zero in on that. Go all in on that.
• 1:05:17
  Like it, it's there's so much opportunity out here.
• 1:05:21
  And we're I, I, I fed into this lie of that's the only thing
• 1:05:25
  this world had for me. That and that I felt into the
• 1:05:28
  lie that that was who I was. And man, at the end of the day,
• 1:05:31
  it was all a lie. It was all a lie.
• 1:05:34
  And, and so I would ask you to challenge yourself and are you,
• 1:05:38
  are you buying into that same lie?
• 1:05:40
  You know, because I promise you there's always a solution.
• 1:05:43
  I'm living proof of it, man. And, and, and by the grace of
• 1:05:46
  God, we get to sit here and do this talk today, but it's man
• 1:05:50
  fight. It's going to be the, the it's
• 1:05:52
  going to be the hardest thing I feel like we've ever done in our
• 1:05:54
  life. But man, it's so worth it.
• 1:05:55
  Just fight. I love it.
• 1:05:57
  What a great. Take away for those people out
• 1:06:01
  there and, and what you just said there, everybody's built up
• 1:06:07
  prisons in their own mind is how did, how do you get out of that?
• 1:06:09
  You know, and, and fighting your way out is what you do and, and
• 1:06:13
  you find your purpose and, and you just step into it and you
• 1:06:16
  find the answers and go out and get it and, and keep moving.
• 1:06:19
  And and like you said, those crazy thoughts never, you know,
• 1:06:23
  leave you, you just, you shrink them down because you're talking
• 1:06:25
  to yourself about the good stuff.
• 1:06:28
  It's just. Really good stuff.
• 1:06:29
  Brandon, I, I, I love your story.
• 1:06:31
  I love what you're doing. I hope you keep just doing more
• 1:06:33
  of it. I hope you get out there and
• 1:06:34
  speak more too. But you also have your podcast,
• 1:06:38
  Whatever It Takes. And I think you drop those shows
• 1:06:41
  every week and film on Mondays. And if anybody's looking for a
• 1:06:47
  book out there, I've got one. Nightmare success, loyalty,
• 1:06:50
  betrayal, life behind bars, adapting, finally breaking free.
• 1:06:54
  Leave a review on Apple. I don't know what it does with
• 1:06:56
  the algorithm, but if you do that, it helps the show.
• 1:07:00
  If you want to know about more about what I'm doing, it's
• 1:07:02
  brentcassidy.com. I spell it wrong.
• 1:07:04
  I spell it with ATY and not a DY.
• 1:07:07
  And if anybody wants a roof out there and you're in this area,
• 1:07:13
  man, Brandon J Roofing, it's they know their stuff.
• 1:07:16
  They just come over to my house. I just went over to my mother in
• 1:07:19
  law's house. There's a big difference in how
• 1:07:21
  they handle things. So I'm going to give a big shout
• 1:07:24
  out to Brandon J Roofing just on another path there.
• 1:07:27
  But Brandon, man, thanks so much for sharing your whole story
• 1:07:31
  today. Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:07:33
  No, I, I. Appreciate the opportunity.
• 1:07:35
  It's, I try to get get as much of the information out there to
• 1:07:38
  the people that need it that I can, you know, good stuff, man.
• 1:07:42
  I also wanted to. Say too, if you guys want to
• 1:07:45
  check us out, check us out on wit Spotify.
• 1:07:48
  It's WIT. It stands for whatever it takes
• 1:07:51
  and then hit us up on the socials.
• 1:07:53
  Brandon James on Facebook and Brandon J1122 on Instagram.
• 1:07:58
  A lot of Instagram followers. I think Brandon's got like 70
• 1:08:01
  some odd thousand of Instagram's followers.
• 1:08:04
  I it's, it's a few people that are listening to this guy's
• 1:08:08
  message, as I used to say to my people when I was writing my
• 1:08:12
  emails back and forth from Leavenworth.
• 1:08:13
  Stay strong. I'll do the same.
• 1:08:16
  Brandon J. Brandon James.
• 1:08:19
  Thank you, man. Yeah, thank you.
• 1:08:20
  I appreciate. It that's really good.
• 1:08:22
  I'm your success in and out.