Transcript of Episode #134 Featuring Wallo267!! From Prison to Prominence! The Ultimate Success Story! Building a winning mindset, overcoming adversity, using failure and struggle to achieve success and more! New

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I have said a million times over that I am one of the most blessed men alive because of who I get to meet, who I get to interact with, all of the places I get to go. And I've had some massive names, massive people, you name it. But we're all human, we're all people. But today's extra special to me. I'm gonna tell you why. The relatability, the perseverance, the virtues that this man holds that I truly value, that I've gone through— not to his extent by any stretch— but it's not just in name, it's not just in notoriety, it's in much more deeper than that, which you and I are going to get into today. And I'm gonna give him an intro that does no justification for who he is or what he does, but I'm known for my intros, bro. So he's a serial entrepreneur, social influencer, and activist, a 3-time TEDx speaker. He's a New York Times bestselling author, and when I get done with this, I'm gonna make sure 2-time. Um, and he reaches millions globally. His name is Wallace Peoples. He's better known as Walo267, but I'm just excited beyond belief to sit here with you today.

Honored, pleasured. So welcome, Walo, to the Daily Podcast.

Thank you, Dylan. I appreciate you having me, taking the time. I had to fly out here. I said I got to get with Dylan, Professor Once I first talked to you and we was on Zoom, it was just like, this guy, man, his energy is just, man, jumping out of the screen, man. And I love that. And just the fact of where you came from, that you've been through, you've been through life downs, you know, but you came out, you done something with it. And I think that's the most important thing because a lot of us, man, we count it out when we fall, especially if we go to prison, but we start counting ourselves out sometimes. So to get back up, I don't think people understand Just the energy and the consistency it take to get up. That's one of the hardest things in the world.

The most important asset we have is time.

Time is everything. You respect it more. When you lose time like we did, you realize how much you wasn't respecting it. Time and space for me, you know, I sit back and I think about all the times that I was sitting in that cell and I was just like, man, and time was just going by, calendars, Calendar just was just flipping like pages in the book that you read. And it was just going by so much. And I was like, man, when I get this, I get my time back, it's on. Because when you in jail, you don't own your time. Time own you. So I was like, man, when I get out here and I can do what I need to do, you know how it is, man. When you get, you know how it is, Dylan, you get up early 'cause you want all yours. You like, I want all mines. Like you, you, you're not getting up just to be getting up. You like, You'll be just, you'll get up and just be doing stuff in the house. You just be like, I want all mines. Mm-hmm. You know, your lady be like, what is you doing?

You like, man, they don't understand. So time is really important to me. It's very important.

Hurry up and wait. That was, that was the whole motto in there. Hurry up and wait.

Mm-hmm.

And, and people can't understand or grasp what that's like until you experience it. And you know what I'll tell you, I've been saying, Well, once time's gone, it's gone. You can't buy it back. You can't get it back. Facts. But you know how you can expand time is by valuing every second you got, putting more into it, love and appreciation.

In a day, like, I get so much stuff done in a day. I think people won't even believe it, what you get done in a day. 'Cause you just like, you just looking at the time and you just like, damn, by 10 o'clock I'm gonna have everything done. I'm gonna do more by 10 o'clock in the morning. But then more people do, by 10 at night. So, you know, it's just be like, you just appreciate it more because of our situation.

You know how when you're a kid and it's like, I can't wait till Christmas, or I can't wait till this, or I wish that— and even when you get older, sometimes it's like, man, I wish the day would hurry up and get over. I never say that anymore. Never.

No, man, I'm more looking at it like, by time this come, or this month come, I'm trying to have all this stuff done. Yeah. You know, know, you like, my birthday is this month, I want to have all this done by then, or whatever, you know. I'm looking at that like, how can I get the most done in a day. Yeah. You know, because I think like after you be down, you just appreciate it. You appreciate, you just appreciate the space and freedom more, and you just appreciate the little things that the average person don't even pay attention to out here.

When something bad happens, especially like your life altering, how easy is it for somebody to just be like, well, it is what it is, you know, and that's it, and this is what I'm always going to be. How hard was it for you when you got out of there? And we're going to go back and talk about what happened in there. But how hard was it for you when you came out? Were you ready or did you come out a little fearful because you were in there a long time? And a lot of people, when they're in there that long, that's all you know. And you're almost scared to go out of that system that you're in for so long. Did you feel any of that? Was there any difficulty for you at all? Or how did you, how did you come out?

The first day you get out of prison, the scariest day of prison is the day they let you go. Because now you gotta become somebody that you never was in your life. But one thing that was real important to me, a lot of people gotta understand you're not, you're not what you're going through. And you can't let one of the worst moments of your life define the rest of your life. I'm sitting, I'm sitting in the penitentiary and I'm looking at Anthony Bourdain and I'm looking at this guy was on drugs, got his life together, world traveler, journalist, food connoisseur, run around the world. Right. Have some of the greatest conversations. But no matter what happened to him during his struggles to get to where he was at, he was so, he was there every time, different city, no matter if it was China, Russia, wherever he was at, he was just, and he was living. I'm like, yo, it ain't never too late to be great. And you can always flip your life around. Everything is about mindset. See, I'm a big mindset guy because if you don't think you're anything, you're not anything..

But if you think you're everything, you're everything. And, and it's not about CC Singh. I tell people you gotta become a millionaire before you become a millionaire. And it's the mindset of, I don't care if you take a book or a piece of paper, take a notebook and you write down a car you want, the dream house, the money you want in your bank account, because you gotta start, you gotta see it before you be it. And you, and you gotta believe it before it even, you, you can even, you know, you can touch it. You just gotta believe it. So what, what happened is, I would be in that cell and I'd be like, when I get out there, it's on. I didn't look at this like, oh, I'm a, no, I never took ownership of I'm just a criminal for the rest of my life 'cause I committed crime. No, I took it like, oh, I'm gonna get, shake this. I'm gonna get out there and I'm gonna do what I want to do with my life. But what I realized is that people is wardens of the prison of their mind. Yeah.

Out here, they scared to death, Dylan. They scared, like, so it was like, you know, You don't even have to go through the stuff that we went through to be a prisoner. You don't have to go through the stuff that we went through to beat yourself up. I think it's really about people's mindset and how they beat theyself up and how you view yourself. Because a person, a person, soon as a person step in a room or you step somewhere, you go anywhere, a person could look at you and tell if you view yourself in a certain way or not. If, if you value yourself and you think highly of yourself, a person can see that. If you don't, you're done. Right. 'Cause think about this, man. You ever notice how you walk in a room and you see people and some people just, and then you, when you walk in the room, hey, what's going on? They're like, oh, this guy's, man, he got the energy of a, wow, this dude. You got people like, wow, people just be attracted to it. You know, 'cause great energy is infectious. It's to make people wanna be like, oh man.

Or do you just see somebody standing on the side? They don't feel, they don't feel that good about theyself.

No, it's a fact, you know. There's so many people that never went to prison that have been in prison their whole life because of what they got inside, what's in their head, what's going on. You want to know something? I got freed in 2011 on the 4th of July, and I wasn't actually free until Friday. Friday, I went through a whole recalibration and nervous system reset, and I became free for the first time in my entire life last Friday, where I was able to let go of anger, rage, things that were eating at me that I didn't even know existed. Because everything's up here. Every single thing that I spent so many years studying— health, fitness, hormones, bodybuilding, peptides, all of this— when I started to study the mind and understood the control that, like I said, I— until I became spiritually like number one, but then focused on my mind and freeing it, that's, that's when shit changed. That's when everything opened up to me. Because your mind, my mind, everybody else's mind, that's what controls everything.

That's the real muscle right there.

Yeah. Exactly. How, how long or how much time did you take training your mind to get where you are?

You ever know how somebody going in the gym, right? When they go in the gym, they be working out, but they don't even know what they doing. They falling behind. I believe my mind was being trained based off the things I was reading, the things I was, uh, seeing, watching, listening to before I, before I even start training my mind, before I ever start, you know, getting my mindset together. And I think them things helped me once I made the decision to say, I want more for me. I believe I can be better than what I was. You know, tomorrow's gonna be better than yesterday. When I start locking that into my mind and I'm like, hold up, I'm not dead, I'm going home, I got a lot of energy, still got my imagination. And then y'all created technology since I've been in prison. So I get to go home and walk around with a computer in my pocket. And the people that grew up with the computer in their pocket, the people that's— they take this shit for granted. Okay, I got them.

But you're battle-tested and you're, you're, you're more susceptible to success because you know what it's like to have everything taken from you. So you got less fear because you already know you can do it, right? That's one of the things I realized was like all these years of stress and everything that's like, man, I've already done that. I've already done all this. I know I can handle it. I don't want to do it again, but I know what to do. So many people, they never have anything go wrong and they live in la-la land and then something happens and they're done. It's over, done.

You know, from me just going through my journey, it's not even about danger or toughness. It's about like, I'm more fearless about something that most people can't be fearless about. They worry about, I'm more fearless when it comes to opinions. I don't care about nobody. I don't care about them. All that other stuff for being tough or fearless to die, you know, don't nobody wanna die. No. You know, but it's like, you know, it's gonna happen one day. In life, but it's like, I'm more, my fearlessness come from, you know, just like, fuck what they think. I'm doing me. Because one thing that I understand is, Dylan, most people that don't like you or criticize you or whatever, they're not criticizing you because they genuinely just don't like you. 'Cause you might have never met these people or you never seen these people. They never was in the same room for you. It's a personal thing. They really don't like they self and they're upset with the fact that they didn't make it to where they believe they should be at in life. And you did, and they watching you and they think they better than you because they might have went to college or because they might grow up privileged or because they— how dare Dylan go to prison, come home and be doing better than me?

And I like, how dare him? He's fake, he's this, he's that. Like, you never hear people doing better than you talking about you. So you got to be understandable about it. I never heard nobody that was doing better than me talking about me.

That's exactly right.

So, you know, it is what it is.

That's where I was going with it, and I was hoping you would go there because part of my problem was, as I lived everybody else's, like, thought, you know. And that's when I got in trouble, was because I was trying to impress people the whole time and not worried about the real shit, you know, the important stuff. And that, that's all it did. It got me where I went. And then I realized that all that was meaningless.

And no, them people care about you.

None. None. They disappear.

You'd be at the bottom and you'd be at the bottom of Earth, man. They walk right over you.

No, because you don't got anything to benefit them anymore. And yep, it's over.

Mm-hmm.

So let's walk back then a little bit. So 17 when you got in trouble, right?

The big time.

Yep. So walk back a little bit on where you, if you can, and I'm sure you can, your mindset about life and what was going on in those moments.

Man, I just was out there young, impressionable, wanted to steal the American dream. You gotta think about this, Dylan. We grew up watching all these, uh, we grew up watching America respect the successful criminal.

Yeah, I know.

Come on, bro. You know, you know, Godfather, biggest movie ever. Everybody love it. And there was a movie about a family that was wrapped in crime. Right. And we love them. We love Michael Corleone. We love, we love, we love them so much that we don't, we, every time we see them in a movie outside of that, we still connecting with that because it's like, it's like you had to watch the, you had to watch Scarface. Yeah. You wanted to be, you wanted to be that, you know? So when you look at these guys, you look at, you know, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, you look at all these guys and you just be like, what do you, like, what do you do? You know, you look at Heat, you look at, oh man, you like, you look at Heat, you like, man, I'm ready to go get a car. I'm ready to go get some body armor, man. Get busy, throw a Jason mask on and get busy. When you sitting there and you watching, you watching two, One of the historical scenes in film, especially if you like crime movies or whatever, or just the action movies, is that restaurant, Los Angeles.

You got Al Pacino on one side, Robert De Niro on the other. And he said, he said, now he said, there's a flip side to this. Yep. He said, the guy I was in the joint with told me never get attached to anything. You can't walk away in 60 seconds flat, 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat coming around the corner. He said, "Well, what would happen if I gotta put you down, Samole?" He said, "That's what gotta happen." But it's this battle of crime and this criminology and it's like, people loved it. So you looking at it like, you say to yourself like, "Man, I might as well take scores out here, man, and live, go out there, rob me a bank or rob me a Brinks truck and try to get some money and just live the life, man." Just 'cause we're looking at a movie where it's though, You got Val Kilmer, you got all these dudes in this movie, beautiful homes they live in, walking around with suits on like they businessmen, living this great life in California. So you say to yourself like, wow, just the same thing. Look at Michael Cuglio, look at him, he suited up, beautiful suits tailored to the T.

Look at Scarface living the life, selling the coke. Look at, look at what's his name in, what's my man in Blow?

Johnny Depp.

Look at Depp in Blow. Yeah. So you think all this stuff, you like, man, I want to steal it. So it promoted the biggest movies that promote stealing the American dream.

It's funny you say that because when I looked back on it, my whole life was the same life from Blow that he lived. And I look back on it and I was like, okay, I can relate this. But then it made me realize like, man, I modeled myself after something that was just so messed up and like, you know what I mean? And then it's impressionable, like you said, and it does that too. So 17, do you— did you go straight to prison then at that age?

Street to prison.

So with all the big boys.

Robberies, yeah. Yeah, even though I'm a kid, certified me as adult, gave me a total of both sentences, 19 outta 52. I did 5, came back out for a couple months, wound up doing 15 more, total of 20. When I look at that shit, I'm like, yo, I'm thankful for prison. It saved my life. I could've got killed out there, you know? And it's just real deep when you look at it as a whole because Dylan, I'm sitting back and I'm like, yo, when I look at it now and I just be like, yo, I'd be so excited when I'm just to myself sometimes while I'm listening to music or I'm just walking there and I'm thinking, I'm like, I'm gonna be 50 in a couple years. Holy shit. You know, 'cause I got so many friends that died before they even made it to 20. I'm talking, I got dozens. So it was like, you know, you just go through everything you go through, you just be thankful. You be like, yeah, thank God, man, that I was saved by prison. Prison saved lives.

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You were state? Pennsylvania.

Okay.

Because Philadelphia, you know, you— yeah, yeah, yeah. And, um, I was in 4 or 5 different prisons at the time, but it really just saved my life. Yeah.

Oh, you and me both.

Man, it is. I really think that happened.

Yeah. I wouldn't have met my wife. I wouldn't be here with you. I wouldn't need you in any of this. I don't recommend everybody go to prison to save their life.

Yeah. Saying it like that.

No, but it did. I always tell everybody I got what I needed, you know, and it, and it set a framework for what you become if you use it as fuel and you use it as, as what it was. Right. So for you, like that first week, let's go back to that first week. What did you feel? Because for me, I was like, man, it didn't set in. And I was dreaming I was free.

I was scared to death. I wasn't dreaming I was free. I was scared somebody was going to try to rape me or some shit. I ain't, you know, just being real. I was scared, you know. So, yeah, man, you just be like, and then you just thinking, you know, when you got to do big time, you like, hold up, I got to do how many fucking years in this joint? And What's crazy, Dylan, is the fact of like, life is not stopping. And you in there year after year, like you doing this time. And it's like, when I think about it now and I'm like, yo, I was in there for years. Like, how did I do? I even sit there saying, how did I do all that time? I done it. But you just be like, 20 years, how the fuck was I in prison year after year after year? You know how much stuff happened in life? Yeah. So it'd just be like, You know, when I think about it, like, when I think like, like, all right, like for some reason it seems like time is faster in there than it is in the free world.

I don't know if it's the way the day, I think the days is so structured. Yeah. That it just go by boom, boom, boom. Yeah. It's done. Boom, boom, boom. It's like it's done. Like it go by quick because it's like a day here, a day in the free world is longer because in prison, you know, especially certain prisons, Once it started to get dark, it's over.

Yeah.

Go and take your shower, lockup time. Yep. Yep. Cut your TV on or whatever. You was in the state of Fed?

I was in the state too. What state? Iowa.

Did they have TVs in the cells and all that?

We did, but you had to buy it and you had to have earphones on to watch it.

Yeah, that's how we had it in our joint. Yeah. So we got that and it's like once you, 'cause it's like a day, it's like, all right, me, I was a kitchen worker. So I get up like 4 or something, go to make the morning breakfast. Yeah. I'll be, but I'll stay there for the, You know, this one, when I leave, I was a night cook before, but I get up, guard come open my cell, I'll be ready. I mean, we stand in the, you know, in the front of the block, wait for the guard to walk around the compound to pick all the kitchen workers up. And we just walk in line, go in the kitchen, start, you know, prepping the food for breakfast. Boom, boom, boom. But you know, a lot of times when you're in prison, anytime you're out your cell, you happy. So it was like, bet, I'm out my cell, I'd rather be down the kitchen all day. 'Cause down the kitchen you got access to good food, better quality of food. So I'm just down there. We make the breakfast, boom, whatever that is, you know, back the lines up because it's multiple lines for different chow halls.

So you know how they segregated. So once they get all their food, run the trays, rather be working on line or whatever, boom, boom, get that stuff done. After they everybody leave, cleaning the kitchen. Getting ready for day back and getting ready for lunch. But a lot of people leave. Like, I leave, go back to the block, go to the yard, run a yard workout, boom, stay there for 2 hours, go back on the block, take a shower. It depends. The afternoon yard, about, you know, you take it— no, you take a shower after the workout, chow time. If you work, you go back down to work to serve the line or for whatever. After that, chow time, afternoon yard, or you go to school, library, whatever. Then they have the noon yard. You go back to the block, mail time. They passing the mail around. Yep. Pass the mail around, right? And then after mail, you know, mail, you lock down, you do count, clear. They start running chow. Chow workers will go out, go to chow, come back. You got night yard at certain times. Sometimes they'll do night yard in the winter.

Sometimes, you know, because it get dark. Yeah. Sometimes they do. It depends on which type of joint you're at. After that night yard, you go back to this cell block, take a shower, showers on again. Once you lock up, go in your cell, watch your TV show, read your book, listen to your music, it's over.

Mm-hmm, it's over.

You sleep.

All you got in there is your routine. I mean, literally, that's what you got.

Your routine is everything. You know what I mean? Some people get on the phone. If you got, you know, some money on your phone, commissary, you make some food. Yeah. But it's like, it's every day. You got your rubber, you know, your Rubbermaid bowls, your dishes. Your Rubbermaid bowl, your hard plastic fork through the night.

Yeah, that's all you got. That's your life.

You wash that, you, or you keep that because you know that bowl, if somebody cooking or you cooking, you know, you take your bowl there and load it up, that little Rubbermaid bowl. And the thing about the Rubbermaid bowl, it gets stained from the different salt, you know. I know, you know how it'd be like, it'd be like brown around it no matter how much you clean it. Oh, you got your Rubbermaid bowl, you got that, you got your container, you put your water in there, you got your hot, you got your hot, uh, mug for the hot water. Yeah, you got different, you know what I mean? So it's like You know, that spoon in that cup, that's like gold. That's gold. You need, you need that.

Yeah.

Oh yeah. Then you got, then you got the guys that, that, um, instant, the instant coffee warriors. The coffee, creamer, sugar, the 3 bags, the plastic bags. That's like, you know, you don't ask nobody for that. Dudes take that personal more than anything. That, that's the first thing on dudes' commissary list every time. They gotta make sure they get their bag of coffee, their bag of sugar, and they creamer.

Yeah.

Boom, boom, boom. Put the one mark right next to the— get that. And then whatever else, add it, like your danishes or your little snacks. You know what I mean? You gotta get into— some dudes get the protein powders and whey powders, the, the, the, all that. They get all the powders and shit, right? And after that you go to like your beef sticks and the seafood, the tuna pouches, the soups. And you gotta get all your stuff, your peanut butter, your oatmeal, 'cause you gotta bulk, especially if you workout guy. Oh, you know.

Your PTSD.

Creatine and all that shit.

So I was running, I was running a sportsbook and there were two other guys.

Oh my God. Yeah. They don't understand the sportsbook come from the prison tickets.

No, that's it. And I was, I got the newspaper where I was calling my mom every Monday to get the early lines and then running it back on Thursday and every—

was killing them.

I was killing it. I was collecting so much commissary every week, man. I met a neighbor.

Yeah.

Never ate once like the prison food in two years. Because all I ate was commissary when I first got there. And then when we ran the book, all I ate was, was commissary.

Let me tell you this. First of all, let me just break down your life. I'm gonna break it down. Number one, once you made your ticket with the carbon paper and the lines.

Oh gosh damn.

Listen, listen, you get the carbon paper off of commissary, right? So you get the long legal paper. That's when the legal paper, you know when you need that? You need that for the Saturday, for the college football. Yes. Game, it'd be a hundred games on there, right? Yes. You got the long legal paper, you got the, you had the dude with the typewriter, a dude that know how to make the tickets. Once you get the tickets, you cut 'em, you bundle 'em up, you give 'em to your runners on each block. That's what we did. Listen, you give 'em to your runners on each block and your runners, they'd take a certain amount off of each. How many, like, did they have kites in there?

No.

No, they had tobacco, so the food. So, but they'd take that little cut. So, but this how you had it, 'cause I know how to, you had it where it's though, on each block you had a bank. You had somebody, 2 or 3 sales of dudes you got that just hold all the food. So if somebody hit the ticket, you could pay them out right there on the block. And then you had a bunch on your block. You probably had like 6 different sales people holding bags of food. So every night you killing them.

I had so many envelopes and food stacked up in my— you're only supposed to have 5 envelopes at a time, and I'd have hundreds in there, just, just, just sitting there pieced out. And you know what, I got ransacked one time and they came in and took a bunch of stuff and they throw it in a big garbage bag. And I was paying off one of the people that was the cleaners and he brought me the whole fucking garbage bag right back in like 30 minutes later.

And that's what I'm saying. Like you gotta think about this. We talking about when I hit the penitentiary, 1998. So now when I see all these big sportsbooks, I'm like, you don't even know. Y'all was, the prison was light years ahead. Uh-huh. That ticket where you listen, you know, it wasn't like now where you just play one, you pick 4. 4, you get 4 teams to hit. You know, it used to be 10 for 1. Like, like if you had like, I guess you bring 10, you, you bring, you bring a bag of chips, you get the equivalence of 10 bags of chips, whatever, however you wanted to pay out or whatever. Or if you like, in our state we had cigarettes and we had kites. Yeah. That they roll up. The kites was like 75 cents to a dollar something. And then cigarettes were like $10.

We don't even have cigarettes.

That's the thing. See, they had 'em in Pennsylvania.

Yeah.

So they got tobacco. So, So you were just like, man, listen, that, you was, you ain't never have to like worry about money. The people could just come to you. And then what make it crazy is if you running the sportsbook and then you got a store. Yeah. You got the whole commissary of the jail.

I know.

I know. Dudes coming for 2 for 3s and shit.

They called me in one time and they caught on finally. And he would stop me and he'd always be like, okay, Mr. Dillon. How's the casino going? I'd be like, I don't even know what you're talking about, sir. You know?

Listen, let me explain something to you. That's the biggest business in prison.

It is, hands down.

It's not even close. Like, that's how you, so your time was even more sweeter because let me tell you about how your time was. You being in your cell, late night watch, looking at the line, the bottom line. Always. ESPN, that bottom line. Yeah, it was the best.

All I did.

Oh, it was a Nunta Sunday.

Oh my God. I got moved to the minimum pretty quickly because I was on there on drug charges. Yeah. You know, they put me in minimum. And so I would get up at 3:30 every morning. My job was to wake people up to go take their medicine. And I'd go outside. There was a breaking point where you could go outside and I'd train for 2, for 2 hours till count, come in, read the Bible, go through breakfast line, go back out and train for 3 hours and then take a nap because I did 5 hours of working out in before anything. And then I just, that was it, man.

Do you be locked in on tickets?

Well, that's it. We weren't locked. I wasn't locked in the cell after when I moved to the minimum.

It was open.

Yeah. So I just hooped outside because I was a college basketball player. So I hooped, we played pickleball. I was outside all the time and then just like resting and studying.

That's it, man. You had it.

Yeah, I made it that way. It wasn't like that way at the beginning.

It was rough.

Yeah, it was. It was messed up. You know, when I got there, before we move on to yours, the first 2.5 weeks, it was 23 and 1.

Shit.

But it was really like 23 and a half and a half. And we only got to shower 3 days a week.

Yeah, that's how they do it. You're in the hole.

Yes. And this wasn't even the hole. This was just like, like the processing. And I was in there with one dude. You ate at 6 AM, 10 AM, and 3 PM, and that was it.

He was done. Done. You know how hungry you'd be today? You was skinny. Starving. You was skinny.

I was a buck 50 at 6 foot 1. I was reading books from 1870. There was nothing in there but books from the 1800s. So I read Christopher Columbus and all this.

You had all type. Yeah.

Oh, it was crazy.

That was a nightmare.

Oh, it was like 2 and a half weeks, I'm like, 2 and a half years. It was horrible. But people don't understand and they just, they don't equivalent what we went through. So let me ask you this. When you were in there, did you do any like, did you do any groups? Like, you know, I went to church.

Thank You for a Change. Yeah. You got Thank You for a Change. You got Addiction in the Family, Drug Out. You got all types of, all these types of different groups, right? They say you gotta go to these groups. Some of these groups you can't even get in 'cause the list of them, you know, the wait list be 3 years long. Yeah. And it'd be like, you know, sometimes it'd be crazy 'cause dudes would be trying to get into groups and they can't even make parole to the, you know, a violence prevention, anger management. And it'd just be deep. You got them and then you got your group of brothers in jail. Where is that? People that you just, you cool with, people that you know got your back, you got they back just in case anything goes down. And that's like your trust, your group of trust that you, people that you, when it's time to make food, you know, 'cause you know certain events that take place, it might be the Grammys, it could be anything. You gotta make that big spread. And everybody got their bills out there. Yeah, the dips, everybody got they bowls out there.

They going to say they just chilling, you know, the people that's your people, you know, So, you know, it's like, it was crazy is you'll find some, you'll meet some unbelievable people in prison. Like I tell a lot of people, it was one of the most peaceful and respectful places I ever been was prison. Yeah. It's like, because disrespect get rewarded in a bad way. So you can't disrespect nobody. It's not like the free world. We live in a world now where it's though somebody go on social media and say, yeah, Dylan's a dickhead, fuck him, he's nothing. And there's no consequences.

Right.

For, you know, not saying you got to do something to somebody, but it's just the reality of in prison, people know that it's going to be a— I'm talking about a swift, uh, there's going to be a swift action for disrespect. So the respect level is on the highest level in there, man.

Yeah, it's good though because it teaches you respect and it humbles you a little bit. You know, you can't be walking around doing what people do online in the real world. You can't do that. That's how people get shot all the time. Yeah, you can't do that. That's not, that's not reality. You know, I don't live in that violent thought process anymore, any of that at all. And I don't wish that on nobody. But sometimes, man, I see the things people saying, it's like, man, you don't know.

You'd be happy that you removed.

Yes.

Yes. From the nonsense.

When you were in there, I had a moment where I became accountable. I stopped being selfish.

Oh, without a doubt.

When did that hit you?

It hit me. You know what's crazy? I think all the time that I was in prison, every time I go to jail, I always was like accountable to a point because I knew that I was in jail for me, not the white man, not this, not that. I knew I was in jail 'cause I got caught doing some shit that I'd done. I never was a guy that was like, oh man, I didn't do that, I'm innocent. I wasn't him. So I always was like, most of my times that I would plead guilty anyway and take a deal. And just go my way because it was like, I ain't even want to waste these people time. Yeah. And it saves you and it gets you lenient sentences. Yeah. I mean, we just like, oh, mercy of the court. I don't want to like, you don't got to do this shit.

Right. 100%. It, when you start to become accountable though, it gives you like that real true sense of reality on, on what it really is to be successful. And I think when you can do that and most people don't do it ever, we got built-in excuses now for everything. But I think that that allows you to become something. They're everywhere, man. It's something. It's always somebody saying something. I hate it.

It's bullshit. Nobody could just say like, you know, I did some dumb shit, or, you know, it was my fault. I didn't, you know, whatever it may be, you know. Or, you know, you don't— you can't get a job, but it's everybody's fault but yours. Like, not that, damn, you know what, I didn't try enough. I, you know, so this month I signed, I filled out 5 applications, I should have filled out 25.

Yeah.

'Cause you got time. 'Cause the time, I always look at things like this, the time you sit around and bullshit or waste or be on social media, that's the time you could be using to get to what you need to get to to secure your life. And if you're not doing that, that's on you.

100%.

'Cause you ain't got no, if you ain't got no job, you ain't got no time to be on social media. No.

That's the thing.

Why you on social media and you ain't got no job?

And that's what kills me is the people that, like we're talking about, that they get online and type all their stuff and do all this stuff. And I'm thinking to myself like, this is what you do in your spare time? And they're the ones complaining with all the excuses.

It ain't no spare time. It's, it's they time. It's they life.

Right.

You know what I mean? So it's like, you gotta think about it, man. That's some, that be some people life to be online watching everybody else life. Yeah.

It's crazy. So, you know, when you get out of there, 'Cause you know, you do what you do now, but when you got out, what was your like driving force? What were you going after?

Did you have a plan? Yeah, I remember I put on social media like a week outta prison, I had $1,000, I had my book of life where I wrote all my notes and anything I wanted to do, I showed everybody. People still play that video to this day. And I'll be like, I got $1,000, the book of life, and I'm going out here and I'm gonna make it happen. From the rip, I came right out doing my videos, selling merch out the trunk of my homeboy, my brother from another mother, Saif's car. You know, I used to sell these, get these shirts made for $5, sell 'em for $25. It's always money in Philadelphia, stuff like that. And I would just do my thing. But I kept posting on social media at a time when people wasn't really like, talking about 2017, people thought I was crazy. I was doing like these videos just encouraging people, talking to people, wherever it be. I just showed my journey. And you know, a lot of people wasn't, a lot of people just wasn't, they wasn't doing it like, and I just kept doing it. Yeah. Kept doing it, building it up, you know, no matter how many likes, I just kept doing it every day.

Do 3 videos a day, post 'em. I'm talking for years, just kept doing it. And you know, I built it, just kept building up, getting speaking engagements, doing promo for people on my page, just doing my thing. I used to go around the restaurants and businesses and do commercials for 'em.

You know, back like when you got in trouble, when I did, even at the time, there were things that really weren't acceptable. Tattoos, going to prison, like you got a felony, whatever.— it seems like things are more, way more— people want to hear that comeback story now than they ever did. Did you run into resistance or any kind of people hating or trying to tear you down for what you were doing?

I really didn't notice as much, but I'm pretty sure it was people, you know, it's hard for people to deal with that, you know, they did everything right and you supposedly did everything wrong. You surpassed them. So that's hard. Yeah. It's hard for you to— people to see you because A lot of times people have a problem not with you, they have a problem with the response you get. Yeah, that's right. So it ain't though, it ain't that I just got a problem with Dylan's the problem. I got a problem with the way people respond when they see him. Dylan, what's up, guy? My people don't look at me like that. And what social media did today, it made everybody wanna be famous. Yeah. People just want to, people are willing to do anything. They want to be famous. They don't even want no money. They just want popularity. They want clout, they want to be famous. So a lot of times when that don't happen for 'em, they get mad and they upset with the people that got it organically, just naturally. Like wherever we have social media, not dealing your energy will generate respect, love, admiration.

Like yo, you, you'll get opportunities that a lot of people won't get based off the way you approach, the way you communicate, the way you look, take care of yourself. All that stuff count. But some people don't, won't have none of that and they'll just be mad at you like, Why do you love him so much?

Let me ask you this, for you, because like for me, characteristics of things I look for in people that I know, I just, I just know like this, this guy's got it going on, or this, this woman's going to be successful. Looking people in the eye, you know, the way you carry yourself and how you talk and converse with people back and forth. Let them talk, you know, don't just talk about yourself all the time. Relate. What are some of the things that when you, you walk in a room, you can just tell A lot of my thing is just energy.

Yeah. How you deal with people, man. That's all. Like if I see that you just, man, good dude, you know what I mean? You're open. That's really what it's about. Like just your openness and your receptiveness to other people and just the way your energy, you know what I mean? 'Cause as much as like me, myself, I'm looking to be pushed. I'm always in student mode no matter where I go. I might go somewhere to teach and I'm still going in student mode. Like my student, My student brain is always open at every time. You know, I might be going somewhere to, you know, lead. I'm trying to be led. Yeah. Sometime because I think that's what helps me continue to elevate and grow and become better at what I'm doing.

You know what I always say? You can never know too much, but you can always know too little.

Man, we don't know nothing for real. Nothing.

You know? Nothing. And the minute you, realize that, you actually become the smartest. Because people don't understand the differentiation between knowledge and wisdom. There's a lot of smart, smart people that don't know how to use it for shit. The wisdom is what, what generates like the success, the reality, and you moving forward, right? How wise do you feel over the years? What kind of wisdom do you feel like you've gained over all these years that you could share with some people?

I believe this: if you really want something, you could go get it. And I'm not saying that generically, I'm saying it in a real term, like Once you think about it and once you go at it every day— I believe in this everyday thing. If you, if you take something today, if you start doing something today, you do that shit every day, a month you're gonna be closer, 2 months you're gonna be even closer, 3 months— it's gonna happen. I just believe you gotta just go after it. But I think people is too afraid to start. Starting is, you know, you know what, start— people think starting gotta look pretty. It don't. It can be ugly. Just start, you know? And when you start something and you lock in, it'll catch. You just gotta give it some time.

Yeah. Patience, dude. Like, patience. Nobody has it. And I'm not gonna sit here and act like I've always had it, because it's hard.

Yo, man, we still learning.

Yeah, because you don't obtain that in prison, man. You know, that's one of the things I kind of lost when I was in there, and it took me a while to get it back. And I don't know why or what, and I was always an impatient guy, but I think that that patience Patience, but still like being temperate in what you're going after and going for it, but understanding this is like, it's a marathon, man. It's not a sprint. You can't take everything in one day. It takes a minute, but you got to get out like you said and go do it and do it.

Something.

Yeah. What drives you right now? What makes you go?

Realizing that I ain't gonna be here forever. I know I gotta leave this joint one day, you know, and the fact that I just want to leave as much stuff I could leave here as possible. You know, whatever it is, wherever it's books, wherever it's, uh, you know, podcast, whatever, videos. There's just a lot of stuff I just wanna leave here.

Well, 'cause people, people look for you for inspiration, you know, and you know that. And how does, how does that make you feel after everything you went through? Like, does that make you feel satisfied in any sort of way? Like that was for, like your suffering was for a real purpose?

You know what's crazy? I, I, It really feel good and it feel strange when I be in the airport or somewhere and people just run up, "Hello, man, you really are." I be like, "Oh shit." 'Cause I be forgetting sometime. 'Cause I go into my own little world and be trying to figure out like, "Damn, what I want to cook today?" And I'll be, I just, maybe in a market just trying to grab a good meal or some vegetables and stuff. And it'd be like, somebody walk up to me and I'd be like, "Damn." And I just be like, you know, you'd be like, you'd be shocked. 'Cause they'd be like, damn, I really helped somebody in that way. So it'd be, it still, still be feeling a little awkward. Yeah.

But 'cause you come across to me like the type of guy, 'cause you know some people, man, they get that and they get real cocky, real shitty with people and just, you seem like the type of guy that—

I stop and take every picture. Yeah. Shake every hand, laugh, crack the jokes, whatever, it don't matter.

Yeah.

'Cause I know what I signed up for. So it'd just be like, damn, but I'd be just, Sometimes people say some shit to me and I'll be like, damn, like, and they'll tell me about a video or something they read that I put out and they'd be like, damn, I really, me? You know, it'd be like, damn, you talking about me, dog? And it'd be like, I'll be a little like, damn, it's real. It just feel good, you know, to know you help somebody that you never, that never met you.

You're not old by any stretch of the imagination. We're close in age. How many, like, like, do you feel like you're just kind of just getting started? Because I feel like that myself personally. Do you, do you get that feeling at all? Or what, what do you feel about where you, like, how much you progress so quickly and where you're going?

I think I've done a lot in a short period of time, and I think where I'm at in life now, it's like I'm, I'm more one to just, you know, see new places, meet new people. Stay on my health journey, you know, walking and biking and hiking, you know, and it's like, I really don't know. Mm-hmm. You don't, when I say I don't know, I don't know if I'm early or late. It don't even matter. I'm just traveling through life now. It's just like a journey. So it's like, whatever come, come. But I ain't—

God's time is God's time. It goes how he sees fit. Talk to me about your health journey then. Let's get into that a little bit. 'Cause that's, that's my realm. No, I'm interested on, A, what was your, your prison regimen workout like?

And it was, it was simple. I run 2 miles around the track first. I come out, me and my homeboy, and as soon as we come out, we do 20 downs. That's 20 jumping jacks, 20 leg raises. And so many leg raises, like, and I mean 20 leg raises, 20 pushing for 20 push-ups, and we'll go down 20, 19, 18, you know, always burnout, vicious burnout. How you tight, core and anything. And then we run 2 miles. Yeah, that was— that's it. That's simple as that.

Did you do any weight training at all?

No, no, no, no, no. I ain't messing with them weights. I let them dudes— them dudes in the weight pit game, there was— there was another level.

I was out there in that negative degree weather lifting that cold steel, man, in Iowa. It was crazy. I was one of the few that did it. Most people, all the tough guys sat in the window and watched me.

Yeah, that's different. You different.

Right.

But that's how dudes was in Pennsylvania too. They'd be out there lifting that steel. Yeah. Wipe the snow off the bars. Yeah. Had them gloves, them cloth gloves from commissary.

Yeah, that's all we had. They're like gardener gloves.

Doubled up. You got double, triple up. Had a shirt all on, the thermals, that was it. The sweatshirt, the thermals, the sweatshirt, and the brown shirt.

That's exactly it.

Yeah, right.

Yeah, I'd be out there in below zero weather and blizzards, never miss one day. Lightning, whatever. I snuck out, whatever I could do. And I used to burn out the bottoms of the Converse also.

Are you complaining?

No, no, no, no. I went through— I don't know how many pairs of those. You know what I did in the winter? This will kill you. You know the jump rope they give you? Just a piece of rope.

Yeah.

And you know, it ain't swinging in the wind in the winter. So I'd go hose it down. It turned into a piece of ice and I'd use it and then I'd snap it in half and have to get a new one every day. And they just keep giving them to me. Every day. And because eventually it broke, it snapped after about 200 or so. I did every day, man, whole time. That's how I got out early, because the counselor watched me every day working out when he was pulling up, running hills, and he got me in the drug treatment early. And that got me out early because you just like what you mentioned earlier, you got to wait years to get in those programs, man.

You got to know somebody that's going to put you, bump you. That's the only way. Nobody bump you, you done, done. You really got to have a good counselor, somebody that's like, let me call somebody. That's what happened. They be like, I got you.

That's what happened, man. Talk to me about your book. So we said New York Times bestseller already. Already. We're about to be two-time very soon. Yeah. Let's talk about the first one first before you get into the second one. What was your inspiration behind the first one?

You know, just talking about my life and the journey. You just want to put it out there, talk about my life and my journey and all that type of stuff and just share some stories of my upbringing. Prison life. But this one, this is about finally opening up, saying yes to you. I think we live in a world where everybody is looking for you, like everybody is looking for you to say yes to them and no to yourself. And a lot of times we say no to ourselves by saying yes to people when we don't want to say yes to people, right? That's why the name of the book is "Yes to You, No to Them." You know, the discipline of saying no and the freedoms that follow. Like, no is a powerful word. And no is a word that open up some unimaginable doors for you. Because we living in a world where everybody's choosing them. So they whole thing is, how could I get with Dylan and take, take, take, take, take, take, take, but never give. And it be simple stuff too, man. And I just think people don't put themselves first no more.

People pleasing is like major out here. Because everybody wanna be accepted, everybody wanna be liked, and it's like, it ain't no such thing.

No, I agree. If you, if you can't love yourself, treat yourself well, and respect yourself, how the hell you gonna do that for anybody else? I don't get it. You can't.

But people, people just think personally, have a friend, all they do, friend do is take, but they don't want to fall out with the friend, so they just keep saying yes. Yeah. You know, you don't wanna go to party, but yeah, I go with you. Yeah, you know, you want to go out there, but I go with, you know, want to loan money, but I go with no. Just say no.

Yeah, 100%. So for you, because, you know, I, I have a lot of people I talk to, but I keep it very tight with who I'm around for obvious reasons. Right. How do you decide who's going to, you know, be close to you? Like, you know, because everybody kind of keeps the company that's going to help them where they can help each other be better.

Man, I don't deal with a lot of people. Yeah, simple as that. Like, I know how to just me, I ain't got no problem with staying in the house. Like, I'm cool. I'm cool getting up, doing what I gotta do and stay in the house. Like, I'm really cool with that because it just, it just leave you a lot of BS, man.

Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, and I like, and I love a nice nap. I love it.

You know what I'm saying? I'm with you. I, I built myself a place where I am very, very, very happy to stay there. And I think you get the most done there and you get the most value of time. You know, you try to run around, do all this nonsense and everything and and run hot all the time. It's so unfulfilling. What, how do you think you're best? Like, what do you, what are your ways of winding, winding yourself down or putting yourself away where you can do stuff like write this book? 'Cause this takes time.

Yeah. A lot of it takes time. And like with this book, this was so special. I did it like I had social media. Yeah. Meaning like when you look at it, it's like all of the, it's like a post and the caption. So it's broke down and then making it so simplified and digestible. You know, I want it to be, you know, the nanosecond messaging, but it's digestible and you immediately get it. You start looking at things different. Like, yeah, I gotta choose me or whatever it may be. Yeah. But like a lot of times you do that or sometimes I just talk it. I talk it, record myself, just have it transcribed. I love it. It's easy.

How long did this one take you to do?

It didn't take, it didn't take long. Couple months. You know, really? I was on and off it. But it's really like, I mean, you see it, you know, the good thing about it is like, it's like posts.

That's so awesome.

I break, you know.

Yeah.

Like each, each one of 'em, like, you see what I'm saying? Yeah. I had that there.

Haters are your marketing team.

Let them work. And then I break it down right there.

Dude, that's so good. Oh my gosh.

You see what I'm saying? All of it is like, so it's, so it's making it just great for you.

Oh man.

You know what I mean? Everything is like, it's simple. It's powerful. 'Cause I had to cater to the day approach and the way people see things today. Yes. Today is about like, you know, they want, they want it, they wanna be able to catch it, you know? So I designed this book so you catch it quick, you know, and just be up on it.

It's brilliant because you know, one of the problems is, is like the attention spans are gone.

That's why I'm gonna get you with this.

Yes.

That's beautifully done. I'm gonna get you right. Boom. Get you. Whereas though you could just say, damn, let me read 10. Let me read 20. Let me read. You know, 5.

Because I just got my copy Friday, the early copy, and I haven't had a chance.

You gonna love it.

I just love the 2 pages you just showed me.

You see what I'm saying? Think about it. So it's like the whole book is like that. So you just get it quick, man. So you should be able to read this like in no time.

Yeah. This is one of those things that hits home for everybody, man. I love it, man.

SCU noted, M. What's the plan?

You got any more coming in the pipeline?

You got them right here? Well, I got some, I got some stuff already done too. Do you really? Yeah. But I think me, you know, I was telling my manager and my partner, I was telling her, I'm like, I think I might be done because I got, you know, I already got stuff out my system. I think the last book I'm gonna write in my life, it's gonna be called "My Last Letter." And that's gonna be like when I'm older and I'm done. I'm just gonna sign off.

So are you gonna do any, do you do any in-person speaking engagements? Do you go to events?

Yeah, I speak all types of places. I done spoke all over, man.

So what's your plans? You got anything big coming where people can come listen?

Uh, they always go, they always go to my socials, but I got something coming up next month, I think, in Richmond, Virginia. I got book tour coming in June.

You got to keep me posted.

Keep you posted, Dyl. I really appreciate you, man, for having me, man. And, uh, thank you for taking me down memory lane, man, with this, the whole sports betting stuff.

We got a lot more to get into later, man. We'll get into on the side. I love you, man. I appreciate that. Yeah, now you, you're You're one of them one-of-a-kinds that I don't get to run into too often, and I love it, man. I like to be able to do this.

Yeah.

Get into some real, real life stuff because, you know, I talk about so much when it comes to all the health and wellness stuff, but the real life situations that set the frameworks, set your mentality, set your beliefs, put you on a path that you're going to go on. That's as real as it gets, man. So for you to come on and share it all and be so open about it, It says a lot, man. It does. I'm sure you hear that a lot, but you just come in like personal level, bro. I appreciate it more than I could ever say because, you know, I feel like more people don't do that. And it's awesome what you do.

Thank you, man.

It's really appreciated. And your impact is felt and it's only going to grow.

Thank you, Dylan.

Absolutely. You tell everybody where to follow you and I'm going to set links for your book and make sure this thing pops.

Thank you, man. Thank you so much. Everybody check me out at Wallo267. It's W-A-L-L-O. I'm talking about LinkedIn, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram. Wallo267.co is my website. This book right here, man, Amazon, you can pre-order it right now. It's gonna be on everywhere. Amazon, everywhere books are sold. Barnes Noble, you can find it. But let's, let's do it, man.

Yes to you, not to them, my friend. No to them. No to them. So, you get on this book, you follow my man, listen, learn, let him inspire you, and to be like a guide of inspiration and hope, because we're all about faith, hope, and love, man. So, Walo, like I said, bro, appreciate you, my real honor, my man.

Thank you, my brother.

You got it, all day. So, all right, everybody, that wraps up another one. I hope this hits home in multitudes of ways, provides you what I said— faith, hope, and love— and, and just a open mind to things that, that you can do. So that being said, stay tuned for plenty more to come. Dylan Gemelli and Wallo267 signing off.

We outta here.