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A Few Special Guests... · Billy & Lisa in the Morning: The After Show

0:00
Speaker 1: All right, Welcome in everybody After Show podcast. It is
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Speaker 1: on justin here, Welcome in. Hope you're doing well. Today
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Speaker 1: is Tuesday, March twenty fourth. If you listen to the
0:08
Speaker 1: show today, as always, you can chime in, leave it,
0:11
Speaker 1: talk back any questions or comments about what we talked about.
0:14
Speaker 1: But my guys are back in the building, Maddie and Damon. Listen.
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Speaker 1: You guys are the after Show Army's favorite guests. And
0:21
Speaker 1: I'm not just saying that they love it. They love
0:23
Speaker 1: you guys so much. So welcome back.
0:25
Speaker 2: Power of Recovery. Just that's crazy. That's a big deal.
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Speaker 2: I mean, that's that's that's very humbling.
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Speaker 1: Well, you know, the thing is is like when people
0:34
Speaker 1: listen to this after show, was that your headphones or mine?
0:36
Speaker 3: I think it was mine?
0:38
Speaker 1: Are you all right?
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Speaker 4: Yeah?
0:39
Speaker 5: Are you sure you need to handle it? Wow?
0:41
Speaker 1: I hear it again? Are you sure those are your headphones?
0:42
Speaker 1: You don't need headphones? Take them off.
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Speaker 3: They gave me the shihead But then I don't feel
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Speaker 3: like I'm on the radio.
0:47
Speaker 1: You're not.
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Speaker 5: You're on a podcast. Bro.
0:48
Speaker 1: Let me make sure that they're not. You know, do
0:50
Speaker 1: you think hold them in close? Now? Talk? Are you
0:55
Speaker 1: making fun of me.
0:56
Speaker 5: Hey, bounce your head up and down.
0:59
Speaker 4: I don't now.
1:01
Speaker 1: People love when you guys are on because you know
1:04
Speaker 1: it's you're authentic.
1:06
Speaker 3: Right.
1:06
Speaker 1: You come in, we shoot the ship, We talk about
1:08
Speaker 1: real stuff, recovery and our lives and people like that,
1:11
Speaker 1: and they like to listen and you kind of see
1:13
Speaker 1: what's going on, you know. So I do appreciate you
1:16
Speaker 1: coming in every month. You don't have to do it.
1:18
Speaker 1: I know you're a busy guy.
1:18
Speaker 5: You and Damon, well he's busy.
1:20
Speaker 2: I just work for him.
1:21
Speaker 1: Oh this is what people This is what people really
1:25
Speaker 1: love is them too. They're like best friends who just
1:28
Speaker 1: completely bash each other at all the time. Will work acquaintance.
1:32
Speaker 5: Oh listen, he does this all the time.
1:34
Speaker 1: Right.
1:34
Speaker 5: But real, Let me just tell you a very quick story.
1:37
Speaker 2: Last night, we were at one of those twelve step
1:39
Speaker 2: meetings and I got a little shaka. I was supposed
1:42
Speaker 2: to be their chair and a celebration for my buddy
1:44
Speaker 2: who's who's got sixteen years separated. And U and I
1:49
Speaker 2: walk in and I like, I said, like, it's packed.
1:51
Speaker 2: I'm looking around. Then I see my brother. I'm like,
1:54
Speaker 2: and I go up to the table.
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Speaker 5: What's going on?
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Speaker 2: He's like, yeah, you're either going to be really mad.
1:58
Speaker 2: Well this is gonna go great, And I was like
2:00
Speaker 2: what He's like, I kind of hijacked it. You're celebrating too.
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Speaker 1: Ah. Yeah, well, while you guys have been gone the
2:06
Speaker 1: past month, you did have an anniversary. We both had.
2:09
Speaker 1: Damon got sixteen years before I did. All right, I
2:13
Speaker 1: got clean first.
2:14
Speaker 5: And No, I didn't know and he didn't celebrate.
2:17
Speaker 1: You didn't celebrate. No I did? Is wrong with you?
2:19
Speaker 3: Well?
2:20
Speaker 2: You know, I'm a busy.
2:21
Speaker 1: You're too good to celebrate.
2:22
Speaker 5: I wouldn't go to that found my friend, did you celebrate?
2:25
Speaker 5: That's the thing.
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Speaker 3: Last night I got him to a meeting that he
2:29
Speaker 3: couldn't refuse.
2:30
Speaker 1: I said, will you share my celebration? And then you
2:33
Speaker 1: have to say yes.
2:34
Speaker 5: Yeah, you can't say no to that.
2:36
Speaker 1: So then I set him up.
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Speaker 3: I called all his family and I took half the time,
2:40
Speaker 3: gave it a damon.
2:41
Speaker 1: I took half the time. We both celebrated. Oh I see, Yeah, So.
2:44
Speaker 4: I still get shipped off for doing something selfless.
2:47
Speaker 1: You guys really do love each other.
2:48
Speaker 4: I don't.
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Speaker 3: I actually love his family, and I don't want you know,
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Speaker 3: it's so.
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Speaker 2: Hey, Justin there's nothing more uncomfortable for this kid than that. Yeah,
2:56
Speaker 2: that's not a thing more uncomfortable for him than that.
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Speaker 2: So I appreciate what you doing here today. But we
3:01
Speaker 2: I just I don't know if you looked around the
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Speaker 2: studio at all too, But you know, brought.
3:05
Speaker 1: You a present.
3:06
Speaker 5: We brought here.
3:08
Speaker 1: Yes, We're gonna get to that in a moment.
3:10
Speaker 4: The President, where's the bag I got for you?
3:14
Speaker 1: The President came alive?
3:15
Speaker 5: The President alive?
3:18
Speaker 1: All right, Well, pull up to the microphone there, mister
3:21
Speaker 1: mystery guests. I teased this on the podcast yesterday that
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Speaker 1: they would come in and have a special guest, and
3:28
Speaker 1: the special guest is Johnny Bart. Johnny Bart is Now
3:32
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna tell the whole story, because I think
3:33
Speaker 1: I told most of the story in the podcast yesterday
3:35
Speaker 1: to tease it. Johnny is someone who I follow on Instagram,
3:39
Speaker 1: who I kind of meeting for the first time, but
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Speaker 1: I feel like I've known you forever. You have a
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Speaker 1: crazy story, but your your life today is all about
3:47
Speaker 1: like helping other people and about change, and you work
3:49
Speaker 1: for power of recovery. So welcome. Pull up close to
3:52
Speaker 1: the mic nice and close there. They you lift.
3:55
Speaker 5: That thing up.
3:56
Speaker 3: He doesn't like a podcast.
3:57
Speaker 1: Every twenty Instagram every day is a new one.
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Speaker 4: I was just telling these guys that anybody that ever
4:05
Speaker 4: comes to the podcast and says, oh, I'm really good
4:06
Speaker 4: at this stuff, yeah, it's never good really, So I'm
4:10
Speaker 4: not gonna say I am.
4:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I'll come on, yeah, definitely is that Johnny's head?
4:20
Speaker 1: Get him out of here to.
4:22
Speaker 5: Take them out?
4:23
Speaker 1: Who's going to take them out? Me? There? You don't.
4:26
Speaker 5: I don't know if anybody.
4:27
Speaker 2: I think you, I think a lot of the army
4:29
Speaker 2: are going to notice that you might be man crushing
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Speaker 2: a little bit, you know what I mean. I'm just
4:33
Speaker 2: putting it out there, just trying to get the It's
4:35
Speaker 2: not uncomfortable for me. It might be uncomfortable for you.
4:38
Speaker 1: I'm completely like comfortable in my own like you know,
4:42
Speaker 1: HEATERO what sexuality and that's okay, that's okay. You know, listen,
4:46
Speaker 1: you know what's crazy. This is what's crazy. Okay. So
4:49
Speaker 1: you know I've been working in radio a long time, okay,
4:51
Speaker 1: so you know, you meet celebrities, you meet artists, and
4:53
Speaker 1: that's all well and good, and in the beginning it
4:55
Speaker 1: was great. It's still cool, right, I don't take it
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Speaker 1: for granted in the least, but over time what's excite
5:00
Speaker 1: are people like fitness people or maybe old school rappers,
5:04
Speaker 1: like from the nineties, so like a Jay Cutler was
5:07
Speaker 1: a bodybuilder, Like when he came in it was fucking amazing. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
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Speaker 1: I meet Justin Bieber. I'm like, you know what I mean,
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Speaker 1: it's the same with this, you know, because I follow Johnny.
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Speaker 1: I follow Johnny's story and so I'm happy he said
5:18
Speaker 1: fuck you Damon mic Off. So Johnny you're here because
5:25
Speaker 1: well I wanted to meet you, but also you do
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Speaker 1: work for Power of Recovery, so I want to talk
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Speaker 1: about that first, how you got involved with Maddie and
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Speaker 1: Damon what you do all that.
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Speaker 4: So first of all, pleasure to meet you today. Obviously
5:35
Speaker 4: great because we've been kind of following each other and
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Speaker 4: I think your story in a recovery sense is second
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Speaker 4: to none. I congratulate you, and you know, this is
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Speaker 4: what I was just talking about about. You know, social media,
5:48
Speaker 4: what you look for is kind of what you'll find.
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Speaker 4: So when you look for success stories, you're going to
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Speaker 4: find them. If you're looking for, you know, negative stuff,
5:56
Speaker 4: you're going to find that. As well, you know, and
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Speaker 4: you know, thank you to Maddie. Thank you to Damon
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Speaker 4: as well, two completely different people, right, Maddie is just
6:05
Speaker 4: I've known Maddie for a little while. We have a
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Speaker 4: great Damon is like me because our philosophy in prison
6:10
Speaker 4: is we laugh to keep from crying, right, So that's
6:13
Speaker 4: Damon's philosophy, and I love it. So these guys are
6:16
Speaker 4: pull the opposites but work well together. And you know,
6:19
Speaker 4: shout out to Mattie Powers, right, because Mattie Powers gave
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Speaker 4: me an opportunity to go speak at Power Recovery. When
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Speaker 4: I first came out of prison, I shared my story
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Speaker 4: and you know, some people liked it and they were like, hey,
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Speaker 4: who is that guy? You know? And they was asking
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Speaker 4: Maddie about it, and Maddie gifted me with a scholarship
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Speaker 4: to become a recovery coach. And it was difficult for
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Speaker 4: me at first because I was like, I don't know
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Speaker 4: if I can really do this, you know what I mean,
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Speaker 4: you know, but I did it. I went, you know,
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Speaker 4: all the way into it and it's probably one of
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Speaker 4: the best things I've ever done. And I always tell
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Speaker 4: people like, you know, how's being a recovery coach. I
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Speaker 4: tell them that it's something that I would do without
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Speaker 4: getting paid for. But I have the use of being Maddie.
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Speaker 1: Can you repeat that?
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Speaker 4: So, and we were just we were just talking about,
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Speaker 4: you know, crumbs make crumb cake and know that's my
7:06
Speaker 4: philosophy in life. But and I told you that my
7:08
Speaker 4: life is second to none. I love my life. It's great.
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Speaker 4: And if you want me to stop from the beginning,
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Speaker 4: I can definitely.
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Speaker 1: Well, if we're going to get to that, we're going
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Speaker 1: to get to that. Because you did mention prison and jail.
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Speaker 1: Someone might be listening and be like, what is he
7:18
Speaker 1: talking about?
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Speaker 4: Right exactly?
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Speaker 1: But when you say a scholarship to recovery coach, what
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Speaker 1: does that mean?
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Speaker 4: So Maddy paid my way for all the courses, the schooling,
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Speaker 4: everything was free for me. So I became a recovery coach.
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Speaker 4: Right now, there is a kind of a hiatus on
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Speaker 4: recovery coach being certified in Massachusetts because they're changing the
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Speaker 4: I guess the curriculum and certain things about it. So
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Speaker 4: I'm not certified in Massachusetts, but I have everything that
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Speaker 4: I need to be certified. My application is pending, and
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Speaker 4: you know, thanks to Maddie and Damon as well for that.
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Speaker 1: So what goes into being a recovery coach? Like, what
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Speaker 1: is it?
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Speaker 4: It's you know, just it's training, right, because we all
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Speaker 4: know it's one thing that you and I are spread's at.
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Speaker 4: Everybody in this room that has experienced recovery is an
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Speaker 4: expert at because basically it's you're just guiding people through
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Speaker 4: the process that you went through. But however, there is
8:10
Speaker 4: certain things that you have to learn, and it's an
8:12
Speaker 4: intensive training program which consists of you know, books, certificates,
8:18
Speaker 4: same thing as any other course as a college course.
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Speaker 4: So basically I had to complete all these courses to
8:24
Speaker 4: be eligible to become a recovery course in Massachusetts. And
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Speaker 4: you know, I'm happy to say that I've completed all
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Speaker 4: those steps and I'm just it's my application is pending.
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Speaker 1: Wow, look at you, Maddie.
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Speaker 3: Well it went further than I imagine. Yeah, myself and
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Speaker 3: Damon been doing this since twenty eleven, and we also
8:44
Speaker 3: have Chelsea's House Soul be Living. We'd walk into a
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Speaker 3: place and a guy who's just done ten twelve years
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Speaker 3: would tell us how hot it is to come back
8:55
Speaker 3: into the community. I can't relate to that he can't
8:58
Speaker 3: relate to that. I can help you with anything else,
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Speaker 3: but I've never done to any And then you'll get
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Speaker 3: the guy that says this is just the way it is,
9:06
Speaker 3: and I'm this. And then I heard Johnny story and
9:10
Speaker 3: I'm like, holy shit, he did it. Why can't he
9:13
Speaker 3: explain to these people how.
9:15
Speaker 4: He's done it?
9:17
Speaker 3: Somebody who understands you know what I'm saying.
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Speaker 1: Well, because I think Johnny and he's about to go
9:21
Speaker 1: speak on it. When you first hear what he's going
9:23
Speaker 1: to say, like the beginning of his story or like
9:25
Speaker 1: the I did so and so many years, it catches you,
9:29
Speaker 1: like what but you know what I mean? It grew
9:31
Speaker 1: even further. I don't know he speaks Spanish.
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Speaker 3: He's a Spanish speaking recovery coach. I don't know he
9:38
Speaker 3: does this. Now he does this and like he loves
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Speaker 3: to do it. So you don't even feel like you're
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Speaker 3: working when you love what you do.
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Speaker 1: Right, I feel like that too. It my job. That's
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Speaker 1: how I feel.
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Speaker 3: So I was just small minded. I was thinking, Oh,
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Speaker 3: he could help a few guys at the house that
9:54
Speaker 3: we can't help, and it's gone fobby on that.
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Speaker 1: Wow, that's awesome. All right, So Johnny Bott, you want
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Speaker 1: to I want to give the rundown let people know.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, So, I mean, I just started as an East
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Speaker 4: Boston kid, right, My life starts as the East Boston
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Speaker 4: kid playing hockey, great family, great upbringing.
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Speaker 1: Hold on pause, right there, damon. You know what's funny
10:13
Speaker 1: about the fanboy thing he started? I could tell his
10:17
Speaker 1: story word for word because I've heard I've listened to
10:19
Speaker 1: all of his podcasts. But this isn't for me, It's
10:22
Speaker 1: for our audience, so go ahead.
10:23
Speaker 4: So yeah, so I just started out as really just
10:26
Speaker 4: I'm an East Boston kid, and I'm bond and raised
10:29
Speaker 4: in East Boston. Jermaine Wiggins another guy that's from East
10:32
Speaker 4: Boston that a lot of people on you know, on
10:35
Speaker 4: air waves will probably know as well at Wiggans. Jermaine's
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Speaker 4: a friend of mine. So two different paths, right. We
10:43
Speaker 4: always talk about that, Me and Jermaine talk about that
10:45
Speaker 4: I was just I wanted to prove to everybody in
10:49
Speaker 4: my neighborhood that I was a tough guy. I don't
10:51
Speaker 4: know adolescents, I don't know what it was, but me,
10:54
Speaker 4: the roots were fear of learning because I didn't know
10:57
Speaker 4: if I could succeed or not, so that manifests itself
11:00
Speaker 4: in me just wanting to be a tough guy making
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Speaker 4: money the easy way. I've seen people making money with
11:05
Speaker 4: the rackets, doing a bunch of different things, and that
11:08
Speaker 4: was my life. And I always say that I proved
11:11
Speaker 4: that to everybody except myself, and I said, unfortunately, I
11:16
Speaker 4: proved it to the federal government. They gave me a
11:17
Speaker 4: thirty five year sentence in federal prison. But to me,
11:21
Speaker 4: it never not that it didn't sit well with me.
11:23
Speaker 4: I liked who I was because people like fared me
11:25
Speaker 4: and respected me, and that was pretty cool for me.
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Speaker 4: That's what I wanted. It was. It was my objective.
11:31
Speaker 4: But I never felt like I felt like there was
11:33
Speaker 4: more for me. I felt like it wasn't really who
11:36
Speaker 4: I was, and it took me. I got sentenced to
11:40
Speaker 4: four hundred and twenty months in prison, which is a
11:42
Speaker 4: thirty five year prison sentence. My case started a member
11:46
Speaker 4: of the Hell's Angels, and that's kind of how I
11:49
Speaker 4: didn't get in trouble because the Hell's Angels got me
11:50
Speaker 4: in trouble. I did what I did on my own volition,
11:53
Speaker 4: on my own accord, and you know, I killed somebody.
11:56
Speaker 4: I ran a guy over, I smashed another guy with
11:59
Speaker 4: a hammer, you know. And that's like all these cases
12:01
Speaker 4: leading up to what. I had some violence in my
12:04
Speaker 4: past that led up to all of this, a lot
12:06
Speaker 4: of drug dealing and trying to make money the easy way.
12:09
Speaker 4: And you know, the funny thing is I always talk
12:12
Speaker 4: about when I finally got to prison and I was
12:14
Speaker 4: in an orange jumpsuit and I was in a empty cell.
12:17
Speaker 4: I thought to myself, I sat on a stale bunk
12:19
Speaker 4: with no mattress, no nothing. And I remember the first
12:22
Speaker 4: thing I said to myself was, how did you think
12:25
Speaker 4: this was gonna end? Right?
12:26
Speaker 1: Hold on?
12:26
Speaker 4: Rationally thinking now hold on, here you are, because you
12:29
Speaker 4: never think it's gonna end. And but me, I was
12:33
Speaker 4: so clouded by just a reputation about who I was,
12:38
Speaker 4: who people perceived me to be. So I kind of
12:42
Speaker 4: tailored my reputation by how you thought of me. But
12:49
Speaker 4: I'll tell you that I had a fear of learning,
12:53
Speaker 4: a deep fear of learning. I had matt When they
12:54
Speaker 4: talk about matth anxiety, it's so true. In school, I
12:57
Speaker 4: was doing drugs, you know, So it wasn't really something
12:59
Speaker 4: that I applied myself to But when I got to prison,
13:02
Speaker 4: and everybody asked me like, how did you change? How
13:04
Speaker 4: did this change come about? When I got to prison
13:08
Speaker 4: and I began to learn, Because when I got to prison,
13:11
Speaker 4: I was the smartest guy on planet Earth. You knew everything, man, listen. Yeah,
13:15
Speaker 4: And my first thing was no, no, no no no.
13:17
Speaker 4: Any argument was like I talked no no no no no.
13:20
Speaker 4: So when I began to read and I began to
13:23
Speaker 4: explore vocabulary or was reading books. That's the only way
13:26
Speaker 4: you had to kill time in prison, right, So when
13:28
Speaker 4: I began to exploit it and I started to learn words,
13:31
Speaker 4: and I was like wow, okay, and I started to
13:33
Speaker 4: really get into learning, you know. And I went through
13:36
Speaker 4: this whole process of learning, and because what happens was
13:40
Speaker 4: you have to communicate to administrators in prison. You can't
13:43
Speaker 4: just punch anybody in the face. No more right so,
13:46
Speaker 4: and no, I'm saying, and you live in a postage
13:49
Speaker 4: stamp like this would be maybe the rec room, so
13:53
Speaker 4: I can't be like fighting with you every day I
13:55
Speaker 4: go to the shoe with I'll never get out of it.
13:56
Speaker 4: So you have to learn to communicate with people. And
13:59
Speaker 4: that really is what made me realize that you know,
14:04
Speaker 4: you can effectively communicate with people, and you can have
14:06
Speaker 4: the same effect without violence. But learning, to me was
14:11
Speaker 4: the springboard because when I learned, I began to have
14:14
Speaker 4: self confidence. And when I had self confidence, it gave
14:17
Speaker 4: me a thirst for knowledge. And when I began to
14:20
Speaker 4: learn more, it opened up worlds to me. And when
14:23
Speaker 4: that happened, I was able to dream big and that's
14:27
Speaker 4: really when the change started.
14:28
Speaker 1: So it's interesting right now. Now pause right there. I
14:30
Speaker 1: want you to hold your place because I don't want
14:32
Speaker 1: to interrupt the flow. But it's interesting to me because
14:34
Speaker 1: think about this, right You're this guy who's this tough guy.
14:38
Speaker 1: You know, people fear you, and you would think you
14:41
Speaker 1: had self confidence, but you found your self confidence in
14:45
Speaker 1: learning and reading. Like that's so interesting to me because
14:48
Speaker 1: I've seen pictures of you from back in the day
14:50
Speaker 1: of the eighties nineties. You look fucking intimidating. Like if
14:54
Speaker 1: I look at that guy and me like that guy
14:55
Speaker 1: doesn't have self confidence or like needs more self confience,
14:57
Speaker 1: I'm like, no fucking way, Yeah, you know what I mean.
14:59
Speaker 1: So so I.
15:00
Speaker 4: Think it's a facade a lot of people. But you know,
15:03
Speaker 4: I always say my thing was when I was in
15:06
Speaker 4: prison telling people we're all sucking at them on the inside.
15:09
Speaker 4: It's so true, it's the bottom line, but he does
15:13
Speaker 4: that outwardly, we at least put the good facade on, right. So,
15:18
Speaker 4: but learning, to me was the springboard.
15:20
Speaker 1: And it sounds so cliche.
15:21
Speaker 4: When I talk to people and when I talk to
15:23
Speaker 4: kids like get an education, it's like, uh yeah, because
15:26
Speaker 4: if you told me that of it like this this
15:30
Speaker 4: this conversation again, Yeah yeah, everybody says it. But it's
15:33
Speaker 4: so true because it allowed me to dream big and
15:36
Speaker 4: it allowed me to have self confidence in a way
15:39
Speaker 4: where so the difference is the dichotomy of the self
15:42
Speaker 4: confidence I had was I had self confidence here because
15:45
Speaker 4: I could punch you in the face and that's the
15:46
Speaker 4: end all qure roll. But over here I became an
15:49
Speaker 4: effective communicator where I could write a letter to a
15:51
Speaker 4: warden and he would call me to his office and
15:53
Speaker 4: say who wrote this letter?
15:55
Speaker 1: Wow?
15:55
Speaker 4: Like who wrote this?
15:57
Speaker 1: Yeah?
15:57
Speaker 4: You know, but I'm saying. And then what happened and
16:00
Speaker 4: then as people began to rely on me because I
16:03
Speaker 4: had the reputation as a tough guy. And this is
16:05
Speaker 4: what we talked about before the show, right, is you're like,
16:07
Speaker 4: you're this tough guy, like and but you put on
16:09
Speaker 4: you don't put on a facade that you're a tough
16:11
Speaker 4: guy anymore. Well, because that's already established. Right, anybody can
16:14
Speaker 4: go back in history and see that Tom Brady won games. Right,
16:17
Speaker 4: it was probably the greatest quarterback ever. Right, it's arguable
16:20
Speaker 4: now he don't have to be that. It's already established though,
16:23
Speaker 4: that's already established in my life. Now, who am I?
16:27
Speaker 4: And I always had this concept of who I was
16:31
Speaker 4: gonna be, right justin so I thought to myself when
16:34
Speaker 4: I get out, like, maybe I'll have a drink because
16:36
Speaker 4: I did, you know, experiment with drugs in prison. I
16:39
Speaker 4: experimented not a lot ten times in the twenty seven years,
16:43
Speaker 4: but I did. And I had to make this decision
16:46
Speaker 4: who I was gonna be when I got out. And
16:49
Speaker 4: I wanted to be the guy that my friend's kids
16:51
Speaker 4: looked up to and said, like Uncle John is the
16:54
Speaker 4: coolest guy and he don't drink, I'll do drugs. So
16:57
Speaker 4: I made that determination before I got out, and I
17:00
Speaker 4: had to work on that. And this all goes back
17:02
Speaker 4: to me learning Spanish. I had a conversation with myself
17:05
Speaker 4: right the biggest accomplishment that I've ever made in my
17:07
Speaker 4: whole life is I've learned Spanish fluently, and even better
17:11
Speaker 4: than that, as I devised two curriculums to teach people
17:14
Speaker 4: in prison. That was amazing. But I had to have
17:17
Speaker 4: this conversation with myself and I said, John, you know what,
17:21
Speaker 4: before you call your father in order these five hundred
17:24
Speaker 4: and one Spanish verbs in this Spanish dictionary right that
17:27
Speaker 4: you're going to get, you have to make a commitment
17:30
Speaker 4: to yourself. This is true education that I had to
17:32
Speaker 4: self talk with myself. Self talk is the greatest tool
17:35
Speaker 4: I've ever used in my life for recovery, for anything,
17:38
Speaker 4: for walking through any situation. And I said to myself,
17:41
Speaker 4: will you at least commit to one year to learn
17:43
Speaker 4: in Spanish? And said, I made a commitment to myself
17:46
Speaker 4: right there to do it, and since then I've been fascinated.
17:48
Speaker 4: It's been easy for me. I can't tell you, you know,
17:52
Speaker 4: you have to do this because this is great. You
17:53
Speaker 4: might not be you know, you might not be fascinated
17:55
Speaker 4: with something, You might not be passionate about it.
17:57
Speaker 1: I am, well, we're our own worst enemies, right, That's
18:00
Speaker 1: what when you say, like self talk. You know, we
18:03
Speaker 1: can talk ourselves out of anything, you know, so it's
18:05
Speaker 1: so important to have that voice inside that is encouraging,
18:09
Speaker 1: you know, and that's what you're talking about, you know.
18:11
Speaker 4: Yeah, there's no doubt. And you know when when I
18:17
Speaker 4: was getting close to leaving prison, you know, I started
18:21
Speaker 4: to toy with like I knew I was going to
18:23
Speaker 4: get out like I was. You know, they had these
18:25
Speaker 4: credits where you could get but I thought I wasn't
18:27
Speaker 4: eligible because I was a leader organizer. I walked into
18:30
Speaker 4: this office and I was ready to for them to
18:32
Speaker 4: laugh at me, and they wrote a new date down.
18:34
Speaker 4: Then I walked out and I was like, oh, to
18:36
Speaker 4: catch this at some point, you know, because I wasn't
18:39
Speaker 4: really supposed to get it the way that the law
18:41
Speaker 4: was written, the explicit language in it said I couldn't
18:45
Speaker 4: get it. But I ended up getting it, and every
18:46
Speaker 4: joint I went to afterwards they were like, yeah, you're
18:49
Speaker 4: getting it. So then I became eligible for this drug program,
18:53
Speaker 4: which I have to say that the residential drug program
18:56
Speaker 4: in federal prison refine the character that I knew I
19:02
Speaker 4: was going to come out with and really refined.
19:04
Speaker 1: Who I am.
19:05
Speaker 4: So kudos to Lewisburg Camp when they have the residential
19:10
Speaker 4: drug program. I don't think the staff members get enough
19:13
Speaker 4: credit for that. And I had people that were so
19:16
Speaker 4: instrumental in my recovery and so great to me. And
19:20
Speaker 4: you know there was people there that, you know, I
19:24
Speaker 4: had built relationships with staff members and not because I
19:29
Speaker 4: gave cooperation. It's the opposite of that. People used to
19:31
Speaker 4: come to me. I remember one officer and Lewisburg come
19:34
Speaker 4: out to me and said like, hey, I just got
19:36
Speaker 4: this three page memorandum from SIS, which is the investigators
19:39
Speaker 4: of the prison, saying you shouldn't even be here. But yeah, yeah,
19:42
Speaker 4: so you know so. But that's how we built a relationship.
19:45
Speaker 4: You know, miss Vagas, who was a case manager, you know,
19:50
Speaker 4: I built a great relationship with her. The doctor of
19:52
Speaker 4: the psychology program, I built a great relationship with her.
19:55
Speaker 4: She said, you know this last name Ramerez, and I'm
19:58
Speaker 4: like no, She goes, my, ho, there's been is Aw
20:01
Speaker 4: Ramirez at Berlin. You were just at Berlin Nihansha. And
20:05
Speaker 4: you know what I used to do. I did the
20:06
Speaker 4: floors for the warden there. I'd built a relationship with
20:09
Speaker 4: them only because hey, look, you get more with honey,
20:12
Speaker 4: than you do it vinegar right. And I'm into building
20:14
Speaker 4: relationships now because education has taught me that you need
20:17
Speaker 4: to build relationships. That is the number one rule of
20:20
Speaker 4: anything is building relationships doesn't take anything. So when I
20:25
Speaker 4: did this, I didn't know would pay dividends. Right. I'm
20:28
Speaker 4: just doing this because it felt like it's the right,
20:30
Speaker 4: the right thing to do, and I felt good about it.
20:33
Speaker 4: My mother had passed away, and I had made this
20:35
Speaker 4: promise to myself that I want to do one thing
20:37
Speaker 4: a day to make my mother proud in heaven. Right,
20:42
Speaker 4: So these are the things that I were doing. And
20:43
Speaker 4: I would hold the door for somebody, and I go,
20:45
Speaker 4: I know my mother would love that, and I know
20:46
Speaker 4: she's looking down and I know she's happy about that,
20:48
Speaker 4: you know, and say, hey, good day, nice to meet you.
20:50
Speaker 4: My pleasure, you know. So I just think it was
20:53
Speaker 4: just I completely changed the person I was. But it
20:56
Speaker 4: was processional. So when I stopped meeting these people like
21:00
Speaker 4: Woodens now that used to be cops. They would come
21:03
Speaker 4: in to see an officer doing a tour of another
21:06
Speaker 4: prison that I was at, and they would see the
21:08
Speaker 4: officer and they'd walk over to the office and that's Tolomeo. Hey,
21:12
Speaker 4: what's up?
21:12
Speaker 2: Like?
21:12
Speaker 4: You know, because I had built relationships based upon you know,
21:17
Speaker 4: I wanted to do the right thing, not any other reason,
21:20
Speaker 4: you know. And I think this was a springboard to
21:23
Speaker 4: who I have become. And I'm an older fellow too, right.
21:26
Speaker 4: I think there's a term in prison and corrections where
21:29
Speaker 4: we say aged out so but some people aren't. Some
21:33
Speaker 4: people are stuck in these you know, there's I can't
21:35
Speaker 4: go out of the house. I don't want to be
21:37
Speaker 4: around people, you know. I remember when I got a
21:40
Speaker 4: furlough after twenty one and a half years. It was
21:42
Speaker 4: a transfer of furloughs a few hours. Right, everybody was like, man,
21:46
Speaker 4: you're gonna be so tripped out. Wait till you see
21:48
Speaker 4: how fast things are out there. I remember when they
21:51
Speaker 4: gave me taxi money and let me go out the door.
21:54
Speaker 4: I had a couple of years left in prison. Still, No,
21:57
Speaker 4: it's like very very sporadic and very hot to get.
22:00
Speaker 4: I just happened to have a warden and a case
22:03
Speaker 4: manager come to this institution at the same time. Very
22:05
Speaker 4: long story, but you know the end of it is
22:08
Speaker 4: that when I walked out the door, six seconds I
22:14
Speaker 4: forgot I was in prison when I say seamless integration,
22:17
Speaker 4: like this is where I was meant to be, on
22:20
Speaker 4: the street in this taxi giving him a twenty dollar
22:23
Speaker 4: bill shooting the shit? What I'm saying, yo, my man,
22:25
Speaker 4: what's up going into dunkin Donuts giving a girl thirty
22:28
Speaker 4: dollars for a black coffee? And she's like, I said, listen, honey,
22:32
Speaker 4: I'm having the best day of my life.
22:33
Speaker 1: You are too.
22:34
Speaker 4: No, And that was that was but that was my
22:37
Speaker 4: that was the way I did it. But so what
22:42
Speaker 4: I told that person subsequently was no, you know, it
22:46
Speaker 4: was gonna be too fast and to everything for me
22:49
Speaker 4: is when I walked backed into the prison and everything went.
22:54
Speaker 1: Stopped. So how long did you go after that furlough?
22:56
Speaker 1: How long did you still have to do so after that?
22:58
Speaker 4: For it was about five years and right around and
23:00
Speaker 4: right around that time, you know, No, it was tough
23:02
Speaker 4: because then right around that time, I had won an
23:04
Speaker 4: issue in court and I actually got permission from the
23:08
Speaker 4: appeals court to submit another appeal to the district court,
23:11
Speaker 4: and the judge explicitly told me, you won this issue,
23:17
Speaker 4: you're no longer a career offender. However, which is the
23:21
Speaker 4: worst word in the lees is. However, it does not
23:25
Speaker 4: affect the length of your sentence.
23:27
Speaker 1: So you were going for a shorter sentence of course, Yeah,
23:30
Speaker 1: I was most.
23:31
Speaker 4: In the career of friend. There's a big enhancement.
23:33
Speaker 1: Okay, so you get a thirty five year sentence in
23:36
Speaker 1: the FEDS, you have to do eighty five. So what's
23:39
Speaker 1: that minimum number? Twenty seven twenty it's about thirty years.
23:43
Speaker 1: So I got a year off a halfway house, a
23:45
Speaker 1: year off of the drug program, and a year off
23:48
Speaker 1: for the Second Chance Act, which was past. So I
23:52
Speaker 1: just can't imagine, you know, you go in there and
23:54
Speaker 1: it's like, I'm going to die in prison. You're looking
23:56
Speaker 1: down this fucking tunnel.
23:58
Speaker 4: I'm gonna die in It's never gonna So I always
24:01
Speaker 4: talk about having one foot night X, which is the
24:04
Speaker 4: maximum security, because it's like, okay, I just got to
24:07
Speaker 4: thirty five years ounds, what's up? What do you want
24:09
Speaker 4: to do? Who?
24:11
Speaker 3: Like?
24:12
Speaker 4: You know, but you know, everybody has that misconception I'm
24:14
Speaker 4: going to go and beat up the toughest guy in jail.
24:16
Speaker 4: Don't work that way, you know what I mean? So
24:19
Speaker 4: what your conception of something and the reality of something
24:22
Speaker 4: is two different things that I lived the reality of it.
24:24
Speaker 4: But I always had one foot night ex because hey, listen,
24:27
Speaker 4: I'm doing thirty five years. There's not one person in
24:29
Speaker 4: jail that's going to disrespect me.
24:31
Speaker 1: It's not going to happen. Then you were moved around
24:33
Speaker 1: across the whole country.
24:34
Speaker 4: So I was in twelve different federal institutions in the
24:37
Speaker 4: twenty seven years, but now some are for good reason.
24:40
Speaker 4: Some of dropped down in security, so you went to
24:42
Speaker 4: a minimum, you know. I did some time in the penitentiary,
24:45
Speaker 4: of course, and I did sometimes in mediums, which was
24:48
Speaker 4: right to step down from a penitentiary then lows and minimums.
24:52
Speaker 1: Like when he posts, like you post pictures of you
24:54
Speaker 1: when you were in all the years that you were in,
24:57
Speaker 1: and you post that with all different guys, like you know,
24:59
Speaker 1: mob guys, different things like that, and he'll post it
25:02
Speaker 1: and I'll be like help, you know, I'll be like, oh,
25:04
Speaker 1: I'll look up the person. I'd be like, oh, who's that,
25:06
Speaker 1: you know, because I'm like into that stuff, just like
25:08
Speaker 1: history and and all that stuff, you know what I mean. Okay,
25:11
Speaker 1: so you come to the end of your sentence. Now
25:13
Speaker 1: you're gonna get out right, the anxiety that final year
25:19
Speaker 1: two years just must be like just just listen, the
25:23
Speaker 1: days must have dragged right.
25:24
Speaker 4: And then here's the thing. The craziest part is when
25:27
Speaker 4: I talk about case manager of Vargas, what she did
25:32
Speaker 4: for me. So I'm waiting to get my time. I'm
25:34
Speaker 4: leaving the drug program. My whole class has their dates.
25:38
Speaker 4: But because I was in prison for so long, that
25:40
Speaker 4: first step back was supposed to take the year off
25:42
Speaker 4: of me didn't. Because I was in jail for so long.
25:45
Speaker 4: I was in shoe many times early in my prison career,
25:49
Speaker 4: right for getting in trouble, because I was just a knucklehead, right,
25:53
Speaker 4: and it interpreted me being in the shoe is disqualifying
25:57
Speaker 4: me for the time. The year was enacted in twenty
26:02
Speaker 4: twenty three. I was in the shoe in nineteen ninety nine,
26:05
Speaker 4: two thousand. It can't eat. The law wasn't even in place.
26:09
Speaker 4: So there was this big summit on the First Step
26:11
Speaker 4: Act and the whole issue was about me. So they
26:15
Speaker 4: finally worked through that glitch. But by that time I
26:18
Speaker 4: got my date. My halfway house date was seven months
26:21
Speaker 4: after my class O man and I was graduating, and
26:24
Speaker 4: she was like, I put you in. She goes, I
26:26
Speaker 4: don't know what to tell you.
26:28
Speaker 1: She goes, I put you in.
26:29
Speaker 4: I try to put you in early as soon as
26:30
Speaker 4: I got the time soon as because it was like
26:32
Speaker 4: a huge thing. We're like, yeah, it happened. They changed
26:35
Speaker 4: my date. They changed my date. But then when I
26:37
Speaker 4: put in for the halfway house, she called me in
26:40
Speaker 4: her office one day. Right, it was a miss Vagus
26:43
Speaker 4: and I have to mention her by name right at Lewisbourg.
26:47
Speaker 4: You know, she was the one that pulled me up
26:48
Speaker 4: the first day and she was like, you bought tallameo. Huh.
26:51
Speaker 4: She goes, I want you know, you ore the first
26:53
Speaker 4: person we ever had a meeting about before you got here.
26:55
Speaker 4: I was like, oh, that's interesting.
26:56
Speaker 1: You know.
26:57
Speaker 4: So when she calls me in her office when we're
27:00
Speaker 4: there with like three other people in the in the
27:03
Speaker 4: drug program, because people are going in there for the dates,
27:05
Speaker 4: they're talking to her. I'm taking care of the cats there,
27:08
Speaker 4: for the doctor, the psychologist for the drug program. I
27:12
Speaker 4: have a great rapport with staff. Anything they need, I
27:14
Speaker 4: got you. You need something today, I got you you
27:16
Speaker 4: know whatever. You know, that's just the way I was.
27:18
Speaker 4: I ran around because what happened is that the cops
27:22
Speaker 4: would come to me and be like, hey about Tolomeo.
27:24
Speaker 4: Will you tell these knuckleheads that coming up to shake down,
27:27
Speaker 4: Like he would like use me as the conduit, Like, yo, listen,
27:30
Speaker 4: put your phone away, because we'd all get in trouble.
27:32
Speaker 4: We'd all lose our time. But it's a minimum security
27:34
Speaker 4: be prison. This guy just doing thirteen weeks in prison.
27:38
Speaker 4: He don't care what's another ten weeks to him. To me,
27:40
Speaker 4: it's a depth right, I'm going to get out. I
27:42
Speaker 4: got people coming up to get me, you know what
27:44
Speaker 4: I mean. I'm not a knucklehead. I don't want to
27:46
Speaker 4: end up in the I got a contract from the
27:47
Speaker 4: guy in the kitchen. I'm living a great bid. I'm
27:49
Speaker 4: working out every day. I'm getting ready. So anyway, she
27:52
Speaker 4: calls me in the office. She gets on the phone
27:56
Speaker 4: with the people from the halfway house and there's three
27:58
Speaker 4: other inmates in there. She's like, yeah, how you doing. Yeah?
28:01
Speaker 4: His number is two one two seven zero O thirty.
28:03
Speaker 4: She stops talking about me, and I'm like, okay, listen,
28:07
Speaker 4: I've been doing this for thirty years. She's on the
28:09
Speaker 4: phone talking to this administrator. If there's anybody in my
28:14
Speaker 4: thirty years that deserved a better date, it's this person.
28:18
Speaker 4: If there's anyway she's listen, she overrode everybody in the
28:22
Speaker 4: Federal Bureau of Prisons talking to this person, and she
28:25
Speaker 4: talks on the phone to her.
28:28
Speaker 1: Bro.
28:28
Speaker 4: People are listening. They're like, you know what I'm saying, Bro,
28:32
Speaker 4: My eyes are filling up. I'm like, I can't believe
28:34
Speaker 4: this lady's doing this for me, Like you know, hey,
28:36
Speaker 4: your date to date? Yeah, but what yah, listen, that's
28:38
Speaker 4: all the iow. Listen. We put you in early, your date,
28:41
Speaker 4: your date. That's what came back from Texas. We don't
28:44
Speaker 4: know what to tell you. That's the standard answer, and
28:46
Speaker 4: it would be like, boss, I, hey you I I
28:48
Speaker 4: just wanted to come up good Joe. She went above
28:50
Speaker 4: and beyond everything and got me a date which was
28:53
Speaker 4: after my class, but only a month instead of seven months.
28:56
Speaker 4: Oh no, listen, I was bros. I was tears were
29:01
Speaker 4: in my eyes. I was like, and she was like,
29:03
Speaker 4: you know, you deserve that, and I'm like, you know,
29:05
Speaker 4: my eyes are filling up now. When she said like,
29:07
Speaker 4: you deserve that, That's why I did that for you,
29:09
Speaker 4: I was like, but you didn't have to do that.
29:12
Speaker 4: So the greatest thing in life is when somebody cares
29:14
Speaker 4: when there's.
29:15
Speaker 1: No reason and there's nothing in it for selfless.
29:19
Speaker 4: And the thing is is she could be reprimanded because
29:22
Speaker 4: the thing is is in those places it's a minimum security.
29:26
Speaker 4: Your date is your date. They put memorandums out. Don't
29:29
Speaker 4: come asking staff. Your date is your date. We put
29:32
Speaker 4: the paperwork in, we make the recommendation, we make there's
29:36
Speaker 4: nothing we can do for you. After that, she's on
29:38
Speaker 4: the phone. So and that's how I ended up getting out. Now,
29:42
Speaker 4: when you talk about anxiety, no seamless integration, this is
29:46
Speaker 4: where I belong in freedom.
29:48
Speaker 1: You're just counting down. Just let me get there, Let
29:51
Speaker 1: me get there.
29:52
Speaker 4: That's it. And then you know all these knuckleheads using
29:54
Speaker 4: cell phones getting the alcohol in drinking. Listen, I'm the
29:58
Speaker 4: type of guy broa life, do your thing, you know
30:01
Speaker 4: what I mean. But come on, you have to have
30:03
Speaker 4: a little you have come. Everybody loses. And then the
30:06
Speaker 4: class after us got set back three months. So ninety
30:10
Speaker 4: days they're telling them, yeah, come and get me ready
30:12
Speaker 4: before Christmas. I'll be home.
30:14
Speaker 1: Oh match, wow, wow, vicious.
30:17
Speaker 4: And that's what happens. And then you know the knuckleheads, right,
30:21
Speaker 4: you see them, they're out there like, you know, put
30:24
Speaker 4: a skirt on this, my man. Don't let this next
30:26
Speaker 4: guy see you go in the bathroom. Go you want
30:28
Speaker 4: to go, call your family. I get it, but you
30:30
Speaker 4: got three months to do. Bro put everything down, Buckle down,
30:34
Speaker 4: you know what I mean. People have stuff to lose.
30:36
Speaker 4: You can't do that with people. But it's not my
30:39
Speaker 4: place as a convict or an inmate to say, hey,
30:41
Speaker 4: you can't do that, right. I can't go to the
30:44
Speaker 4: cops and say, hey, this guy's doing this. It's just
30:47
Speaker 4: you can't do it. I don't do it, you know.
30:50
Speaker 4: But you have to try to say, hey, my man,
30:51
Speaker 4: check this out, you know what I mean. I would
30:53
Speaker 4: come to them and say, yo, they're coming up. They're like, real,
30:56
Speaker 4: I go, don't get nervous. Put it in a place
30:59
Speaker 4: with it, don't throw it out the windows so they
31:00
Speaker 4: find them outside. You got time put the stuff away.
31:03
Speaker 4: They're coming up.
31:04
Speaker 1: You know what you did? You use language? Yeah, you
31:07
Speaker 1: talked about earlier, right, that's what you talked about, you know.
31:09
Speaker 4: And that's difficult sometimes because you know, when you're talking
31:13
Speaker 4: English to somebody that don't speak English. It's hot. Yeah,
31:16
Speaker 4: when you tell your dog to stop backing and they
31:18
Speaker 4: keep bocking and take.
31:19
Speaker 1: The head of the dog. So all right, So what
31:22
Speaker 1: year did you get out? When did you get out?
31:23
Speaker 4: So I got out August of twenty twenty three. This
31:26
Speaker 4: August will make three full years. But don't forget the
31:29
Speaker 4: first year I was halfway house in home confinement.
31:31
Speaker 1: I remember that. Yeah, I remember that. And then okay,
31:34
Speaker 1: so you come out obviously. So since you were away,
31:36
Speaker 1: your mom.
31:37
Speaker 4: Passed, My mom, your brother, and my father all.
31:40
Speaker 1: Passed while you were passed. And were you allowed to
31:42
Speaker 1: go to their services?
31:43
Speaker 4: No, I got an extra hundred phone minutes.
31:46
Speaker 1: That's it. Yeah, oh my god.
31:48
Speaker 4: But that's across the board. So so I'm not one
31:51
Speaker 4: of these type of guys. You know, it's this conspiracy
31:53
Speaker 4: against me. Prison administrators do what prison administrators do. When
31:57
Speaker 4: Maddie can do whatever he can do for somebody, gives
32:00
Speaker 4: them a scholarship, he gives them free housing. But at
32:03
Speaker 4: the end of the day, there's some people that have
32:05
Speaker 4: to get left out. You know what I'm saying. It's administration, right,
32:09
Speaker 4: So if you don't want these problems, don't go to
32:12
Speaker 4: prison exactly, you know. So I'm not the type of
32:15
Speaker 4: guy to say, listen, I've dealt with some of the
32:17
Speaker 4: greatest people that I've ever dealt with my life in
32:21
Speaker 4: the Federal Bureau of Prisons, my administrators, the law makers.
32:26
Speaker 4: Judge Young, who gave you a nasty decision against me
32:30
Speaker 4: because I spoke out in his courtroom, probably one of
32:33
Speaker 4: the smartest guys that I've read. Some of his syntax,
32:38
Speaker 4: vernacular and some of his opinions. I'm like, this guy's
32:40
Speaker 4: a beast, like I want to write like that. So
32:43
Speaker 4: he's a lot smarter than I am, especially when I
32:46
Speaker 4: was dealing with him. And if I saw Judge Young today,
32:48
Speaker 4: I shake his hand, you know what I mean. And
32:50
Speaker 4: this is why I was let off probation three years,
32:53
Speaker 4: three and a half years early, because I have my
32:55
Speaker 4: probation office. I had a great rapport with her, you
32:58
Speaker 4: know what I mean, and we worked well together. You
33:00
Speaker 4: have to work with people. You know. I'm not going
33:02
Speaker 4: to come in here and be disruptive to you. You got
33:05
Speaker 4: a job to do, right, So I just think that
33:07
Speaker 4: that that just goes along with just being a good
33:09
Speaker 4: person and doing something that your mother would be proud of.
33:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, it just goes. It goes really against a lot
33:15
Speaker 1: of times. What happens with people with convicts, right, is
33:19
Speaker 1: that you get institutionalized. You go in, you go out.
33:22
Speaker 1: You know, it's a vicious cycle, and you're breaking that cycle, right,
33:26
Speaker 1: You're doing it the right way, the positive way.
33:28
Speaker 4: It's you know a lot of people like to use blame,
33:31
Speaker 4: but I also preface this like, I am the worst
33:34
Speaker 4: case study for anybody getting out of prison. I mean,
33:37
Speaker 4: I got guys like Maddie Power in my ConA. I
33:39
Speaker 4: got guys like you know, my friend Geo that did
33:41
Speaker 4: everything I ever needed them to do. I call them
33:43
Speaker 4: fifteen minutes later to do that. Yet you go, John
33:45
Speaker 4: didn't even get out of bed yet. Fifteen minutes to
33:47
Speaker 4: me is like full lifetimes in jail, you know, Like
33:50
Speaker 4: you know, guys like Nick Verron or Frankie Deeper Squally.
33:52
Speaker 4: I'm saying, you know, everybody that's helped me along the way,
33:55
Speaker 4: everybody that come and bought a sweatshirt, that bought a hat,
33:57
Speaker 4: that came up to me. Initially it was like, I
33:59
Speaker 4: don't even care if I don't even want nothing, just
34:01
Speaker 4: take this money, you know, So I am the worst
34:04
Speaker 4: case study. Thank God that you know, based upon my
34:07
Speaker 4: character and who I am, that they've supported me. But
34:10
Speaker 4: I'm just it's a lot of gratitude, you know what
34:13
Speaker 4: I mean. So my case is different than a lot
34:15
Speaker 4: of people's, but there is help. You have to You
34:17
Speaker 4: can't blame other people for your situation. You have to
34:22
Speaker 4: just listen. It's frustrating me learning technology. You have to
34:25
Speaker 4: work through frustration. Take one even if it's one step,
34:28
Speaker 4: go to sleep, get up the next one, and take
34:30
Speaker 4: the next step. But you have to move forward because
34:33
Speaker 4: all you have to do is hang on for one
34:35
Speaker 4: more day and you're gonna get there. I guarantee it.
34:37
Speaker 4: I mean it took me ten thousand days. You a
34:39
Speaker 4: lot shorter.
34:40
Speaker 2: Yeah.
34:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well now because you are a social media guy,
34:44
Speaker 1: yeah right, Like you had to learn how to use
34:46
Speaker 1: an iPhone, how to use social media. That couldn't have
34:48
Speaker 1: been easy, right, So I mean.
34:50
Speaker 4: Where it's a process of working through frustration and as
34:52
Speaker 4: a social media guy, when you say that, I'm just
34:55
Speaker 4: a guy that gets my phone and just says is
34:57
Speaker 4: what I feel that day. So I don't know about that.
35:00
Speaker 4: I just know about now I'm starting to learn the
35:02
Speaker 4: nuances of social media, and of course I'm trying to
35:06
Speaker 4: you know. I mean, it's a great confidence booster. It's
35:10
Speaker 4: amazing when people say to me, like, bro, you know
35:14
Speaker 4: how inspirational you are? When people say that when I
35:17
Speaker 4: touch other people's worlds like that and they come up
35:19
Speaker 4: to me and talk to me. I was standing there
35:20
Speaker 4: with Millies last night. He's a rapper.
35:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean.
35:23
Speaker 4: Then with Millies, two guys come over and go, Yo,
35:26
Speaker 4: I seen that thing. You know that the video you
35:29
Speaker 4: I just want to tell I just wanted to come
35:30
Speaker 4: up and introduce myself. Millie's just like, Yo, that's crazy, bro,
35:34
Speaker 4: you know what I mean? So so and that's like
35:37
Speaker 4: it's humbling, like you know, like Maddie had said that
35:39
Speaker 4: it's humbling, right, So it's definitely humbling, but it's also right.
35:44
Speaker 4: It gives you like a breath of life and you're like, wow,
35:49
Speaker 4: people like this. People. If I put every comment that
35:53
Speaker 4: people have left me about you know what I have
35:55
Speaker 4: done for them, and then they support me. They're buying sweatshirts.
35:59
Speaker 4: I'm like, Yo, this whole thing is crazy, you know,
36:02
Speaker 4: but it is amazing to be able to be in
36:07
Speaker 4: that category. If you're inspirational when you tell me that.
36:10
Speaker 4: I'm like, this guy's just a don kiss one. A wait,
36:12
Speaker 4: Billy cost I'm just talking to Billy Coster out there right,
36:15
Speaker 4: like legend in Massachusetts, been on the radio forever. And
36:19
Speaker 4: to see like these things play out in life, It's
36:24
Speaker 4: like for me, it's fascinating why I say I have
36:26
Speaker 4: the best life on planet Earth. Like I just have
36:28
Speaker 4: the best life. And that's the way I live my
36:30
Speaker 4: life every day.
36:31
Speaker 1: And listen, I identify with that so much, especially you
36:33
Speaker 1: know my career right coming up, Like I grew up
36:36
Speaker 1: in Malden, down the street. I was a street kid
36:38
Speaker 1: and out of jail, growing up, drugs, all that stuff.
36:41
Speaker 1: And to be able to get into this and live
36:43
Speaker 1: out my dream, I identify with that. It's just like
36:46
Speaker 1: life just keeps getting better as long as I keep
36:47
Speaker 1: doing the right thing, stay clean, treat people the right way.
36:50
Speaker 4: Now we need extra innings little the time. I don't
36:54
Speaker 4: want nobody to the school.
36:55
Speaker 1: Let's send this a time. So Maddie, if if someone
36:59
Speaker 1: is a client power of recovery and they can have
37:02
Speaker 1: Johnny as a recovery coach.
37:04
Speaker 3: No, it's not a menu, dude, we tried well, they
37:09
Speaker 3: get a sign but especially like minded people talk to
37:13
Speaker 3: like minded.
37:14
Speaker 4: So if anybody's getting out of prison, I usually get them. Yeah,
37:17
Speaker 4: that's good, that's what I want.
37:19
Speaker 3: Johnny's not going to get a fifty year old housewife
37:23
Speaker 3: who he No, that's not who he relates to. He'd
37:26
Speaker 3: relate to you, you know what I mean, he could
37:30
Speaker 3: talk down. I think he just short changed himself seamless
37:35
Speaker 3: out of prison. It's because of what he I believe
37:37
Speaker 3: personally is what he did inside. All these people wouldn't
37:40
Speaker 3: be rushing to help you if you came out the
37:42
Speaker 3: same guy that went in. You know what I'm saying,
37:45
Speaker 3: we wouldn't be sitting together.
37:46
Speaker 1: There's a reason. He's right, there's a reason why everyone
37:49
Speaker 1: was there to help you.
37:50
Speaker 3: You know, I think you definitely should change it. You
37:53
Speaker 3: did the work before you could reap your reward, and
37:58
Speaker 3: therefore somebody sees a different problem. And like I don't
38:01
Speaker 3: know you from before. We don't talk about.
38:04
Speaker 4: Anything you ever did before.
38:05
Speaker 3: I'm not interested in it, like it's nothing to me.
38:09
Speaker 3: So therefore we have a different relationship. Like I'll call
38:13
Speaker 3: him new Johnny. He's my friend. He helps people. That's
38:17
Speaker 3: how I know him, you know, So like if that
38:20
Speaker 3: guy came out that went in, we're not all sitting
38:24
Speaker 3: here together. He wouldn't want to sit with us, so
38:28
Speaker 3: like he did the work.
38:30
Speaker 1: I've got to be honest with you, Johnny, I don't
38:31
Speaker 1: know if i'd want to know you back then.
38:35
Speaker 4: I wouldn't want to know.
38:37
Speaker 5: He was a friend, not a dog.
38:39
Speaker 1: Ally Yeah, no, not at all.
38:41
Speaker 5: I think.
38:42
Speaker 2: You know what else I think is a huge factor
38:44
Speaker 2: for people to understand is like the perspective change that
38:46
Speaker 2: he talks about, like and and you know, I I
38:49
Speaker 2: heard very loud and clear, and it's something that I
38:51
Speaker 2: see with with the people that we've worked with over
38:53
Speaker 2: the heres and continue to work with, is that like
38:55
Speaker 2: it's you can't put the blame on anybody else. You
38:58
Speaker 2: can't make it difficult for the people that are in
39:00
Speaker 2: your life that I have like a measure of control
39:02
Speaker 2: of it as your probation officer, as your prole officer,
39:04
Speaker 2: as someone who's like dictating some of the pieces of
39:07
Speaker 2: your life, because you have to understand they're doing their
39:10
Speaker 2: job right and so like to go at them and
39:13
Speaker 2: it's no one's fault, like you're in the position you
39:15
Speaker 2: just have to work every day to change how you
39:17
Speaker 2: view that and understand like it's not going to do
39:20
Speaker 2: you any good to make their lives.
39:22
Speaker 4: Worse, and you know there are frustrating aspects of it.
39:25
Speaker 4: I had an incident with my probation officer where I
39:28
Speaker 4: had three dirty urines dirty for too much water to
39:33
Speaker 4: dilute it. So I was I became visibly upset and
39:37
Speaker 4: they were allowing me to travel travel at Columbia and
39:40
Speaker 4: she said to me, Oh, maybe it's something in the
39:42
Speaker 4: water in Columbia or something. Maybe you can't go to
39:44
Speaker 4: Columbia anymore. And I was like, yo, Kylie, that's crazy.
39:47
Speaker 4: That's like a low blow, Kylie Fauci. My probation officer
39:51
Speaker 4: great people like the United States Probation Department in Boston
39:56
Speaker 4: amazing worked well with me. I often to go back.
39:59
Speaker 4: I'll speak to their clients whatever they need from me.
40:02
Speaker 4: That's how great they were with me because I did
40:04
Speaker 4: the right thing. And in this instance, what I did
40:06
Speaker 4: was I took my frustration. I talked to her in
40:09
Speaker 4: the office that day and I was frustrated. She knew it.
40:11
Speaker 4: We were both frustrated, and she was like, John, listen,
40:14
Speaker 4: I can't go to my boss right now and tell
40:16
Speaker 4: him oh, Bo Tolomeo was a great guy. I doubt
40:18
Speaker 4: he's using drugs and I don't think you are. But
40:21
Speaker 4: this is the evidence I have. I have to go
40:23
Speaker 4: back to my boss and say, what do we do
40:25
Speaker 4: with this this person that is on federal probation with us.
40:30
Speaker 4: So what I did was I talked to my friend
40:32
Speaker 4: Leo Farmer, who's a judge, and I asked them for
40:35
Speaker 4: some advice. Right, go to an expert. So I said, hey, yeah,
40:38
Speaker 4: for help exactly. So I said, Leo, what should I do?
40:42
Speaker 4: He advised me to go for an independent test. That
40:44
Speaker 4: quest I did. I went back. I gave that to
40:47
Speaker 4: all the results to Kylie and the probation department, and
40:50
Speaker 4: they were like, well, you didn't have to do this.
40:53
Speaker 4: It's not going to do any good. But you didn't
40:54
Speaker 4: have to do it. What he did and the next
40:57
Speaker 4: couple tests I did, I didn't drink it. She goes
40:59
Speaker 4: just I'm in early in the morning and listen. She
41:02
Speaker 4: would come to my house, which is great for me.
41:04
Speaker 4: I was saying, I have not done to hide. Come
41:05
Speaker 4: to my house. Easy for me, Right, So I went through.
41:07
Speaker 4: He obviously came to my house. We had two and
41:09
Speaker 4: then never had another problem, never been yearned after that
41:12
Speaker 4: and allowed to you know, exit probation three and a
41:14
Speaker 4: half years early. So kudos to them for taking a
41:17
Speaker 4: chance with me and believing in me. And you know,
41:19
Speaker 4: but I did the footwork. I went out and got
41:22
Speaker 4: that extra testion and you know what that says to them,
41:25
Speaker 4: This guy went out and paid one hundred dollars for
41:27
Speaker 4: a drug test. Wow. Yeah, that's that's that's laudable.
41:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you got lucky there, yeah, man, But again
41:35
Speaker 1: it shows like people believed in you.
41:37
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know what I'm saying.
41:38
Speaker 1: Definitely, So all right, Maddie, yes, sir, anything you want
41:43
Speaker 1: to anything going on with power Power of Hope.
41:47
Speaker 3: Not just still rolling power Hope's doing amazing it.
41:52
Speaker 1: Now have you been the Power of Hope yet?
41:54
Speaker 4: I walked through the Yeah?
41:55
Speaker 1: Yeah. So it's really cool thing because they've been talking
41:58
Speaker 1: about it for a while and then it finally opened.
41:59
Speaker 4: And we were just talking about it today, you know
42:01
Speaker 4: what I'm saying, And like, all you have to say
42:03
Speaker 4: is you said the kids, bro, kids, kids, you know
42:07
Speaker 4: what I mean. So, and then Maddie was saying, like
42:10
Speaker 4: what we just touched on about taking responsibility and being
42:13
Speaker 4: you know, being capable to handle your own problems and
42:17
Speaker 4: you know, asking for help whatever you need. But he goes,
42:20
Speaker 4: I have less problems with these the kids, the kids,
42:23
Speaker 4: like you know, that's what he was saying. Kids, kids, kids,
42:25
Speaker 4: So it's it's really uh, I mean, kudos to these
42:28
Speaker 4: I don't know how they do it. I was just
42:29
Speaker 4: in their office. There's people working. I'm saying, there's there's
42:32
Speaker 4: a lot of moving pots. Yeah, and you know, I'm
42:35
Speaker 4: a recovery coach. I'm good at that capacity.
42:37
Speaker 1: Right now.
42:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're growing Chelsea's houses. It's got another property on
42:43
Speaker 3: Baker Street and lin we're building out right now so
42:46
Speaker 3: it'll be another I believe thirty mail beds in Linz.
42:51
Speaker 1: So you're building the house we demoed it. Yeah, so
42:53
Speaker 1: you got it and you're redoing it all. Yeah. Yeah,
42:55
Speaker 1: brand new facility.
42:56
Speaker 4: How many do you have in lin in Linn alone?
43:00
Speaker 5: What's huhuh?
43:02
Speaker 1: You know you gotta go to these guys, these guys,
43:06
Speaker 1: how many wants?
43:10
Speaker 5: You know what I mean that you're enjoying the spotlight
43:12
Speaker 5: right now?
43:13
Speaker 1: Actually, you know what I meant to Okay, six I
43:17
Speaker 1: meant to correct this.
43:17
Speaker 5: Damon, It'll be six you sure seven, thank you.
43:22
Speaker 1: Oh okay, see Damon, now I meant to correct. Remember Damon,
43:25
Speaker 1: remember you called into the show and you had the
43:27
Speaker 1: money counter.
43:29
Speaker 5: Remember that he gets so uncomfortable.
43:32
Speaker 1: Well, the thing is, I should have explained on the
43:35
Speaker 1: air when we were live that the reason you had
43:37
Speaker 1: it was because you would get it. You get cash
43:39
Speaker 1: from the sober house.
43:40
Speaker 5: Yeah a little bit, right, isn't that?
43:41
Speaker 1: Why a little bit? Because I didn't say that, so
43:43
Speaker 1: it sounded like you were fucking Tony Montana, Like why
43:46
Speaker 1: else would somebody have a money counter.
43:48
Speaker 2: I had to count Maddie's money from not much of it, believe.
43:53
Speaker 4: Right now, I take what's left over, like when the
43:56
Speaker 4: bill's rimp, I'll take that.
43:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, me too too.
43:59
Speaker 2: I'm going to you know, dude, Hey, you want to
44:01
Speaker 2: know the Sars truth. I like, counting one hundred and
44:04
Speaker 2: fifty singles was just like I you know what I mean,
44:08
Speaker 2: there was it was getting to be too much. It
44:10
Speaker 2: was getting to be too much, Like you.
44:11
Speaker 5: Know, I want to I'd love to tell you. I'd
44:14
Speaker 5: love to tell you.
44:15
Speaker 2: I had, like, you know, like a Tony Montana counting thing.
44:18
Speaker 2: But there's nothing like that going on unfortunately.
44:21
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, Well, it's good to have you guys on.
44:24
Speaker 1: Maddie and Damon and Johnny. Thank you so much for
44:26
Speaker 1: coming on.
44:27
Speaker 4: Man, feel a pleasure.
44:28
Speaker 1: I got to say when you when you talked about
44:30
Speaker 1: posting these videos, you know it's just you talking to
44:32
Speaker 1: the camera. I know you know that they are inspirational.
44:36
Speaker 1: But I can personally to say I got a lot
44:39
Speaker 1: out of it. I just watching it. I just like
44:41
Speaker 1: get happy. I'm like, look at this guy, man living life,
44:44
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, giving a message out. That's
44:46
Speaker 1: just what I like.
44:46
Speaker 4: Awesome.
44:47
Speaker 1: I like to see people win, you know.
44:49
Speaker 4: Listen, and you know what, here's the thing, news flash,
44:53
Speaker 4: there's room for everybody to win, right, don't hate all
44:56
Speaker 4: the next guy. Yeah, I just don't allow people to
44:58
Speaker 4: win because you know what, And I alway say this,
45:01
Speaker 4: if I was doing the best out of all my friends, hmmm,
45:04
Speaker 4: we'd be in a lot of trouble.
45:05
Speaker 1: Absolutely.
45:05
Speaker 4: I mean, thank god my friends are doing good. Thank
45:07
Speaker 4: god the people around me are doing good.
45:09
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely. I always think about this, this moment where
45:12
Speaker 1: I was I was locked up and I had robbed
45:16
Speaker 1: my family of money go break before Christmas. My dad,
45:19
Speaker 1: I took all his money, right. And I had a
45:20
Speaker 1: little brother that was probably like seven or eight years old,
45:23
Speaker 1: so I robbed him of all his money. I got
45:25
Speaker 1: arrested on a warrant. I went to jail, got sentenced.
45:27
Speaker 1: So I'm in there now. It's after Christmas, obviously, and
45:30
Speaker 1: my dad had no money to buy my brother Christmas gifts, right,
45:34
Speaker 1: So I'm in there, and I remember I was like,
45:36
Speaker 1: you know, catching reck with the guys talking shit. No
45:39
Speaker 1: one was writing me, no one was giving visits, right,
45:42
Speaker 1: And they called my name for a visit, okay, And
45:45
Speaker 1: so all the guys were there were like, who's that?
45:47
Speaker 1: Is that a chick? You got chick coming, you know?
45:50
Speaker 1: And I'm like, yeah, probably who else would it be?
45:52
Speaker 1: So I walked down. I'm like high five and the guys,
45:55
Speaker 1: I'm like, here we go. I walked down to the
45:56
Speaker 1: visiting room and I walk in and now it's full
45:59
Speaker 1: of people on visits. And I turned the corner, go
46:02
Speaker 1: into the booth and it's my father and my little brother,
46:06
Speaker 1: and I just sat down and I fucking started crying.
46:09
Speaker 1: You do, Like, here here was this man that I
46:12
Speaker 1: had fucking broken. He couldn't even buy one gift from
46:14
Speaker 1: my brother. And the unconditional love of him coming to
46:18
Speaker 1: visit me and he said to me, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
46:22
Speaker 1: oh yeah, he sees all this and he said to
46:24
Speaker 1: me and he said to me, he said, I love
46:26
Speaker 1: your son. I just want you to get better. And
46:27
Speaker 1: my brother started crying and he's like, I just want
46:29
Speaker 1: you to be better. You know. He used to steal
46:31
Speaker 1: my needles, you know.
46:32
Speaker 4: And take them. Take thought he was doing your favor.
46:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I used to think about that when you
46:37
Speaker 1: talk about that false self confidence, like that was me.
46:40
Speaker 1: I wanted to be this streak guy, you know, done
46:42
Speaker 1: fucking time. Like when I was growing up, it wasn't
46:44
Speaker 1: going to college, right, It was like when are you
46:46
Speaker 1: gonna sent to bill Rica? Because once you get sent
46:48
Speaker 1: to bill Rica, you're a man. You made it, you
46:50
Speaker 1: made it right. It's like you was up there too.
46:52
Speaker 1: Oh then you start when the riots happened, it's a
46:57
Speaker 1: whole bullshit. It doesn't pay. That's a facade, doesn't fucking matter.
47:01
Speaker 1: Johnny your clothing line, you want to give a shout
47:03
Speaker 1: out on that.
47:04
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's twenty seventh straight. Anybody can go on my
47:06
Speaker 4: Instagram page which is official Underscore Johnny Underscore Battolomeo. I'm
47:13
Speaker 4: sure you'll put it up on the credits.
47:15
Speaker 1: But Johnny Bott yep.
47:16
Speaker 4: You know, just anybody wants to give me a shout out.
47:19
Speaker 4: Anybody needs anything, and you know, first and foremost, if
47:22
Speaker 4: anybody is struggling in recovery today and needs a bed,
47:26
Speaker 4: call me. I'll get you a bed today. That's always
47:28
Speaker 4: the message. If you need help, I got you today.
47:31
Speaker 4: I'll take time out of my day and get you today.
47:34
Speaker 2: He means it.
47:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, Johnny, Maddy, Damon, I mean, what's the phone number,
47:38
Speaker 1: Damon eight.
47:39
Speaker 5: Five seven five six seven six seven up.
47:46
Speaker 1: Oh god, people hate you. You guys are the best.
47:52
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for coming off.
47:54
Speaker 4: Thank you brother, awesome and.
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Speaker 1: I remember all your questions and comments always on the
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Speaker 1: talk back Mike on a ID app. All right, Peace,