Five years ago, I walked out of prison after serving 17 years.

I had $200 in gate money. No real work history. No understanding of the world I was walking back into. And almost everything about my past seemed to tell employers one thing:

Don’t take a chance on this guy.

In this solo episode I wanted to take you back to those first days of freedom and explain how my life went from starting over with almost nothing to writing books, building businesses, speaking around the country, launching the How To Battle Podcast, and creating work that I genuinely believe I was meant to do.

But this episode isn’t really about accomplishments. It’s about what happens when life forces you to make a decision: Are you going to allow your circumstances to define you, or are you going to bet on yourself?

My first four job applications were rejected. Not because I couldn’t work.

Because of my past.

My tattoos.

My former gang affiliation.

Seventeen years of incarceration.

No traditional work experience.

And very little formal education that employers recognized.

Those rejections became a turning point.

Instead of waiting for someone else to give me permission to build a life, I decided to learn how to create one.

That led me into entrepreneurship.

Then writing.

Then speaking.

Then podcasting.

And eventually into the businesses and projects I’m building today.

In this episode, I also share the story behind the How To Battle Podcast and why its roots actually go back to the men I worked with inside prison every Tuesday in the chapel.

I saw firsthand what happens when someone finally feels safe enough to tell the truth about their life. Telling your story can heal you. It can teach you. And it can help someone listening realize that they are not alone.

That belief became the foundation of How To Battle.

And now, as we approach Episode 100, the podcast is evolving again.

I also introduce a new series I’ve been developing with my mentor, coach, friend and brother Dan:

Conversations I Wish I Had With My Father.

My father left when I was young.

For years, I carried anger, resentment and bitterness toward him.

Eventually, through doing my own healing work, I reached a place where I could sit across from him and ask the questions I had carried with me for most of my life.

That experience changed me.

And it made me realize how many people are carrying questions they wish they could ask their own fathers.

Questions about fear.

Love.

Death.

Resentment.

Relationships.

Accountability.

Authenticity.

Purpose.

And what it actually means to become a man.

This new series is about creating space for those conversations.

I’m five years into freedom.

And I’m still learning.

Still healing.

Still building.

Still becoming.

If you’re starting over, whether you’re coming home from prison, rebuilding after failure, changing careers, healing from your past, or simply realizing that your old life no longer fits you, I hope this episode reminds you that your beginning does not determine your ending.

Sometimes the moment nobody wants to give you a chance is the moment you finally learn to give yourself one.

Subscribe to the How To Battle Podcast and let me know in the comments: What is one conversation you wish you could have had with your father?

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