Transcript of From Prison to Purpose: Peter Meyerhoff's Journey of Redemption

I just turned a drug addiction to a money addiction, got sober, and just changed everything, bro.

Welcome to the Home Service Expert, where each week, Tommy chats with world-class entrepreneurs and experts in various fields, like marketing, sales, hiring, and leadership, to find out what's really behind their success in business. Now, your host, the Home Service Millionaire, Tommy Melo. Before we get started, I wanted to share two important things with you. First, I want you to implement what you learned today. Did To do that, you'll have to take a lot of notes, but I also want you to fully concentrate on the interview, so I asked the team to take notes for you. Just text, Notes, N-O-T-E-S to 888-526-1299. That's 888-526-1299, and you'll receive a link to download the notes from today's episode. Also, if you haven't got your copy of my newest book, Elevate, please go check it out. I'll share with you how I attracted and developed a winning team that helped me build a $200 million company in 22 states. Just go to elevateandwin. Com/podcast to get your copy. Now, let's go back into the interview. All right, guys. Welcome back to the Home Service Expert. Today is going to be awesome. I got my boy Peter Meyeroff here. He wrote the book Against All Ods.

He's an expert in motivational speaking, podcasting and resilience. He's based out of LA. The podcaster is called Roll Call with Chappee. But he's, like I said, the author of Against All Ods. He's got an incredible story, and we're going to be going over it. At 15 years old, Peter became involved in a life crime in drugs. At 18 years old, he was since to 12 years in prison and ultimately spent nearly a year in solitary confinement. But since his release, Peter turned his life around. He's become a best-selling author, motivational speaker, podcaster, and entrepreneur. He currently runs a sober clothing line and has also created a prison curriculum app that helps inmates transform their futures. Peter's story is about resilience, redemption, and refusing to make excuses. Today, he's not just an advocate for change. He's living proof of what's possible when you can turn pain into purpose. Hey, it's a pleasure to have you, my brother.

I appreciate that. The only mix-up is I'm based out of Arizona, not LA.

You are in Arizona.

People think that because I do so much stuff out in LA, and I'm always like, I'm going out there next week. I'm out there every month.

Yeah, because you're at Queen Creek, right?

Yeah. Queen Creek just built a house out there last month with my beautiful Black wife, and that's crazy from an ex-dude that used to run your house for the Arian Brotherhood.

Wow. We got a lot to talk about, man. Tell us about your story, where you're at today, where you're looking forward to going.

Yeah. If you want to get in the backstory of how I got there, I was I said I had a good as a kid, but I realized now that I have kids that I just blocked all the bad stuff out of my childhood. So I don't have too many memories. But my parents, I lived in a cul-de-sac. So it was cool until they were 10 years old. I was about 10. My dad was a drug addict, alcoholic. My mom left him when we were 10, and that's when the trouble started. I went to I live with a single mother who was a flight attendant. So four or five nights a week, I was home alone. And when you're in middle school, if your mom's not there to wake up, make you go to school, are you going to go to school? No. Usually not. So I usually would have attendance about one or two days a week at school and started going down the bad path. So anyways, I go to prison at 12 years old. You're not how I went to prison?

At 12?

I mean, 18 years old for 12 years.

Yeah, so that's what I wanted to know. I end up-So when did you drop out?

You were-Freshman year. So you're like-I never made it to a semester high school. 14, 15. Yeah, Never made it to a semester high school. I got probably two, three months of high school.

So you got four years of your life just chilling, doing drugs, off.

Doing drugs and off and getting arrested. And the thing is, I would always get arrested for stupid dumb shit, though. When you're a kid, you could do anything. There's been multiple times. The cops were on there telling my mom, Come pick your kid up. She's like, I'm not picking him up. He needs to go to jail. We can't. He's a juvenile, man. That's what they tell my mom. I still have that mindset. I steal a Mercedes Benz from the Mercedes Benz dealership right here, brand new. Still had plastic on the seats. That was back when gone in 60 seconds came out. So they were like, they're unstealed. They have the red laser-cut keys. And I'm just like, that's all we did. We go out all night. I've been the first to believe I was not no big time dude on the streets. I was a little petty shit head thief. Like, literally, that's all I did. We'd go around. And it's embarrassing me saying the shit I did now. We'd go on just stealing shit all night long, like with bullcutters and stuff. So that's what I did. I stole a Mercedes Benz there. I get arrested.

Lojack had just came out. Didn't know nothing about Lojack. So I get surrounded 2 hours later. And I get three months jail and probation now. Even then I'm thinking, damn, I just robbed a Mercedes. I only got three months jail. You know what I'm saying? And now the fear of jail is gone for me. You know what I'm saying? Because I always have that fear in the back of my head. We don't know what jail or prison is really like. You know what I'm saying? Now I've been to jail. It sucks, but it's not that scary. You know what I'm saying? And I only got three months.

It's not like the deep prison.

Yeah, no. And Yeah. And I was on minimum security shit. So it was nothing gangster. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? And then I'm like, now that's all gone for me. And I only got three months for stealing a Mercedes Benz. I'll just be a little more careful this time or whatever. And spring break, which should have been my senior year of high school, So my brother and his friends come back. What's crazy is I went to prison for burgerizing a house that was already burgerized. And whose house it was, it was my best friend that didn't stand up for me, which is why we did it. So coming full circle, right? So four years later now, it's spring break, and they're the most spoiled, rotten, rich kids in all about, too. They have a 15,000 square foot house out there. And they're in Hawaii. My brother and his friends come back and just had a bunch of shit. And we just burgerized the Nelson's house. We're like, Where are they at? They're in Hawaii. And I'm like, Oh, shit. They do go to Hawaii every spring break. So no one is there? Yeah, no one's there.

I'm just keeping on the low. When my brother's friends leave because they drink, so they're going to pass out at 2: 00 or 3: 00 in the morning. Me and my buddies, we don't sleep. We're on drugs. So when they go to sleep, then we go back to the house because that was the only deal. Do not go back to the house. Now we won't. So go back there. I know where the house is. The back door is open. I don't even make it out of the garage, bro. I was going to take just stupid stuff and come in full circle now. It's just crazy how you can see. I just wanted shit that I couldn't afford. I took Jordan basketball shorts, Jordan sandals, and a snowboard and a drill. You know what I'm saying? And now it's like, my kid wears Jordan shit every single day now. You know what I'm saying? Because I can never wear that shit as a kid. It feels so good. Just little shit. Just seeing my kid come up to me, you're wearing Jordan shit. I'm like, dude, now it's cool seeing the life I get to raise my kids because-How many kids?

I I got two little babies now. So anyways, we do that. I don't make it out of the garage. My buddies come and they take all the jewelry upstairs. And we get home and he pulls out this bag of jewelry, man. And it's like a bag of jewelry, $330,000 for the jewelry. And I'm like, keep in mind, I'm not no big time, dude. This is bigger than my drug dealer. We go steal shit and give it to him and give us drugs and money. He can't even buy this shit. He lives in a trailer in the south, right up the street from here, South Phoenix, bro. Yeah. Like, literally, I was having flashbacks. Any time I turn on Broadway, I have flashbacks. Yeah. And of course, 10 kids involved. My friend that took the jewelry, of course, tells the cops that he was sleeping in my mom's house. I burglared the house. I even told them where the jewelry is hidden because I had him on probation, so now I'm this hard ass. So I ain't saying shit to the cops. The other five kids that went to the house first, every single one of them said that I had did it.

I had told them I did it. They don't know nothing about this, except that I told them I had done it. And they say they're going to make an example out of me, and I'm just like, Bring it. I think I'm this little bad A tough ass dude. And worst case, I thought it would get two, three, four years.

And at this point-Did you have a court-appointed attorney?

No, I actually had a... So I had a court-appointed attorney at first, and then when they were still trying to give me the same plea, four to six to nine years, my dad had got me... I had the attorney that ran for the attorney general for the state of Arizona, and he lost the election right during my case. I had the worst judge in Arizona's history. They ended up banning him because he was too harsh on his sentences afterwards. But they didn't resentence me, and they sentenced me, and I never forget his words. He goes, I find it mitigated for the fact that you're only 18 years at the time you committed this crime. He goes, I also find it mitigated for the fact that I think you have a drug problem rather than a thieving problem. He goes in his next words, But I think this also caused for an aggravated sentence of 12 years. I remember before my sentencing, I told my lawyer because we were looking at 4. 25 to 6 or 6. 5.

Didn't the prosecutor give you a...

A plea bargain? Yeah. This is how dirty this is. I got a plea. All the kids that did it, all they had on me was all these kids telling on me. I know they'd already did it. Then by the time I got my police report, the five kids had all got seen. They went to this house in the daytime. It was a maroon Malibu had got seen and spotted by the neighbors. I'm knowing if it goes to trial, I was the only one I knew. I wore gloves, my fingerprints were nowhere. These were all kids that got spotted. My brothers, they're all kids. I'm like, think of work space, my brother gets probation. I take this shit to trial. I skate on this, right? I was fought in my case for almost two years in the county jail. Nobody's in there for non-dangerous crimes for that long, right? Like, literally nobody. I was in it for 20 or 21 months. But they won't budge on this. So then what do they do? A year into my case, they charged my mom, my dad, and my grandma all with my crimes because my grandma lived in my mom's house, and they said that my mom and my dad knowingly possessed the stolen stuff and didn't do anything about it.

Oh, my God.

Right? So now I'm fighting this. Dude, that's crazy. And they don't budge on anything still. So then finally, we go to the settlement conference, and everything's recorded in court hearings, right? Except a settlement conference, because a settlement conference is your final mediation before you go to trial. So it's the last step. So for your settlement conference, you're going to go in front of, I don't remember the name, but I went in front of a different judge, and it's like a mediation. So it's not recorded. It's just like they put you guys in a room, like, Figure this shit out before you want to go to trial, because they're saying you don't really want to go to trial.

Plus it's expensive, plus they throw the book at you.

Please figure this shit out. You know what I'm saying? To tell me, you really don't know what you're looking at if you're losing trial, you're telling the prospect, you're like, you don't really want to go to trial this and all that. So I tell him to give me a different plea. She says no. I said, Okay, how about this? Drop the charges against my family and then recommend the minimum. I said, You do that, I'll sign your plea bargain today. Minimum is 4. 25. She said, If you sign this plea, I'll drop the charges against your family and recommend the minimum. Cool. Done. Whatever. It is what it is. So I signed the plea bargain. Now I know I'm going to get 4. 25 to six or six and a I remember telling my lawyer, it was yesterday, you just got to make sure I don't get the six years. I cannot do six years. I cannot do six. I'm claustrophobic. I'm everything, which is why I say, you can do anything you want to as long as you train your mind to do it. You know what I'm saying? I lived in a five by seven, and I'm claustrophobic for years, too.

Not only a year in solitary. And I go to my sentencing. At this point, I'm just ready to go to prison. I've been in county jail forever. So I go there and you're all shackled up together. Your lawyer usually comes talks to you right when you get to-But you said, I can't do six years.

They gave you twelve.

Yeah.

And then they count the two that was in the county. Yeah.

So I went to prison in May of 2005, got locked up in April of '03, and I got released in February of 2015.

Dude, don't you get to get out earlier for good behavior or anything?

Or pills? I got out of Supermax in an investigation for attempted murder. I didn't behave good in there. Oh, you didn't behave? Oh, my God. It was the exact opposite. I didn't change my life until I overdosed on fentanyl after I got out and found God.

And what year was that?

The year after I got out. So 2018?

No, 2016. So you got out in 2015, 2016. You almost died? Yeah.

That's nine years ago. Just over 10 because I have 10 years sober now, too. And they made 2 million bucks in the next five years with zero education, no help, nothing. 2 million?

Mm-hmm. Wow. I want to hear these details because I don't get a whole lot of stories like this.

People don't ask these details. It's pretty cool even me talking about this now. And it brings it up for me, too, because sometimes I I tell dudes the worst thing I can do is forget how shitty my life used to be. You know what I'm saying? Because then I'll get complacent. I don't have perspective. I don't have as much gravitude as I should have.

So you got these shackles.

Yeah. So as soon as it comes down, my lawyer won't even look at me. I knew. I have groups of... I just knew it was a bad day. I just had it right then when he wouldn't look at me, I knew that something was wrong. And what I should have done going back is I should have had her cap the plea because if I would have told her to cap the plea, which means she said she'd recommend the minimum. But if I tell her to put the on it, it can be in the plea bar. And I'm recommending the minimum for this.

You got the best lawyer.

I didn't do that because it's a lawyer. She's telling me to my face, how am I thinking a lawyer is going to lie to my face in front of a judge? You know what I'm saying? Yeah. So then she goes and my lawyer hands me this presense report, which they do before you get sent every time, which is they do separate people go through the whole case and they give the recommendations to the judge on what they should do. He gives this whole thing and he's like, Here's this.

I'm like, What the F is this?

What do you expect me to do with this? What am I looking at? When he points right here, he goes, That's her recommendation. She recommends 13 years. I'm like, But she said to me, I know, I know, man, because it was from In front of a different judge. We don't have anything recorded. I'm just like, I'm like, Oh, my God. And then we do the talk thing. And I still was like, there's no chance the judge is going to give me this much time. Keep in mind, I've been in there for two years now, so I've seen dudes, murders and manslaunters Five, 10 years. I've seen all this shit. There's no way they're going to give a kid like me 12 years for a theft charge. Not so much. I didn't even think 12 was even on the table. I thought the worst case scenario would be 6 to 9. And then he says that, and I go from bawling my eyes out when he says that 12 years to just flat out shock. And then the next thing I know is you can hear just the court erupt, man. And I turned around behind me, my grandma's there, and she's like, flipping out.

Like, please let me hug my grandson because he's going to be dead by the time I get out now. Like, barely holding themselves up. Like you've seen in the movies, bro. I have a big family. You know what's crazy? I made it through all this when I don't talk to any of them.

You don't talk to your grandma?

I'm sorry. My grandma and my mom are the only two of my entire family. I talk to both sides. You don't talk to your dad? No. What about your uncle? No, my dad's 27 years sober.

So you don't talk?

I don't talk to my... The last talk I got into my uncle was like, I will whip your ass, I'm that dude now.

You said that to him?

To my uncle, the one that taught me out of box.

So you talk to your mom and grandma only?

That's it. I don't even talk to my own brother. We're like this.

Your younger brother?

Yeah.

What's the deal with that?

I had a hard time being this because I don't ever want to badmouth my family, shit like that. But here's the thing. I'm a servant for God, bro. You know what I'm My message is supposed to help people. So if the truth hurts, then my brother needs to change. And I won't have negative bad stuff around my family.

So your uncle, your dad, your brother, you just don't feel like they're living? They don't.

The path. Every one of them. I don't associate it with bad people now, bro. Like, blood or not, I'm a firm believer. Just because you have the same blood as me does not mean your family. I have dudes that have not even a trace the same blood as me, and I would die for them, and they would do the same for me.

Wow. Yeah, that's crazy, man.

Prison will teach you real quick about loyalty, man, and how important it is to have someone that's loyal to you, really loyal to the core, not just saying they're loyal to you.

Well, loyalty. So you go in and there's a few... So talk to me about It's hard to even picture because I was a model.

I was in a movie as a kid, too. I was a stud athlete. I was 6'44 with long blonde hair, a little pretty boy.

And this was... What did you weigh when you went in?

6'44.

That's when you went in to prison?

No. Okay, so I put on 20 pounds in jail. So I think I was like, 160, 170. And then I got released. I was 6'4, 264. What do you weigh now? 220, 225. But I put on... Shit, what is it? I came to do the math. 120 pounds in there and grew three inches. I barely had arm pit hair. I was the last person to hit pubic out of my friends. I was literally just a little kid when I went away, bro. And you know what? Honestly, it made it easier for me, though, because It'd be so hard, bro, if I knew that life was this good out here. Seriously, I didn't even know what I was missing. So it made it easier for me. That was after two years in the county jail right there, too.

Oh, boy. Wow. Tell me about the gangs. I just want to hear a little more. I want to jump into what the future looks like. Yeah, for sure. So you walk in, and what did you get? In a bunk with someone else?

Yeah, in a little cubicle. You're an absolute nobody. They run the rules down to you. Here's what it is. You got 12 years. You better Pay attention and put your head down. You know why they call it a sucker punch? Do you?

No.

Because you're the sucker if you could punch. I was like, what does that mean? He's like, if someone raises their voice at you, you even think you're going to get into someone, you just take off on them.

And I was like...

You take I was like, really? I was like, we can do that? He's like, yes, this is prison. He goes, you don't ever let someone get the better hand on you. If you even think you're going to go there, it's always better to say sorry afterwards.

So you hit him?

Yeah, that's what they tell me to. So I ended up using this on this same guy a couple of weeks later. And my first fight in prison was the guy that ran the rules to me and was running the building and was built like me and you now. And I was built like a 160, 170 pound kid back then.

And you had already learned a little bit about boxing?

I used to box. I already know I have a cheat code. You know if you actually know how to fight a trained person, no one on the streets knows how to fight. And that goes for prison, the same thing. So out of the streets, one out of 100 knows how to fight. In prison, 10 out of 100 know how to fight. He says some smart as shit about his playing cards in his little cubicle area. And I already made up my mind after I count him, I was going to take it. They're like, say I'm not where we had to fight. I'm just good on reading vibes. I knew no one respect me or looked at me and I was like, I'm going to at least show these guys I can fight. So he does it and then says, I'm going to teach you little young punks how to respect your elders, and goes to take the chew out of his mouth and turns his back to me while he does this. I'm like, Dude, you told me the rules here. So I'm on top of him within five seconds, doesn't even get a hand on me.

They end up ripping me off him and beat the brakes off this dude. The next morning, the weirdest thing about going to prison, especially when you're a popular kid, is like, you're a nobody, bro. No one cares about you. No one even talks to you. They're not going to see if you're going to last a week or two. You know what I'm saying? Like, literally, no one even messes with you because they think, especially kids like me, they're like, this dude is going to check in in two seconds to request protective custody.

Yeah, but was it like there's gangs you either got to go with or not, right?

I only have one choice. I can either run with the Arian Brotherhood or I can be a lame. That's the only two choices.

And then the other ones are...

Yeah, you got the Mexican Mafia, you have Sudeños, which is the Cali guys. Glendale is so big. Glendale has their own racing gang in prisons now, too. And then you got the Paisas and the Border Brothers for them, which we were at complete war with in the prison before I left. Like, literally full on war.

And that's when...

They had a separate yard. They would murder each other. The head dude of the Arian Brotherhood was like, stabbed the head dude, the Mexians, and killed him in his right-hand man, right in the yard in front of everybody.

These guys are doing, what were their sentences like?

A lot of them are not even-were they less than 10 years and they still did that?

Now they're down Now they're doing life.

The main guy that was the top dude for the Eric and Brotherhood that I'll show you afterwards, and he's like a man of God, he's the most remarkable dude I met now, came down for a three-year burglary charge back in the '90s and murdered a Black dude in the child home, picked up 30 years. He came down for three years.

When you get out, some of these guys... Do you know Andre?

Norman? Yeah. He was just on my show last week.

I know Andre really well. He was just down on my show last week. He was like, he says he's one of the bosses. Yeah. He's like, look, he'd walk in and be like, make me a sandwich.

I made him say that story on my show, too. Yeah, I see. Andre's cool as shit.

So that's one of the guys I wanted to-Same stuff, yeah.

And that's the same thing. You can tell by the dude's verbiages and stuff like that. Yeah, how it is. And you know what that says is that Andre, not only that, but he did time on a real yard because those real yards, those cops just want to go home, bro. They're not trying to start no shit. They don't want no problems or any of that stuff.

Oh, there we go. That's my man. We'll hit him up later. Yeah. So now you go You go through all this and you go through the struggles. And who's visiting you?

And then my mom, my brother, and my dad. I always had visits. I always had chics, too. It was just easy for me. I would say I had the toughest time possible. I had as good as possible with all that stuff. I always had visits and stuff like that, and I always had comments, especially when you're running yards, you have to have that stuff. So that was addicting for the attention. The next morning when I come out, all these OGs that I used to look at on the yard, or now I want to shake my hand because they heard this little kid The way that was running the building. So now they wait out there to shake my hand. And now it's as addicting as anything possible. It's like making your first money when you're trying to become an entrepreneur. You know what I'm saying? And I just jump headfirst into the politics, and I'm like, oh, yeah, if you guys want anybody smashed, please let me know. I don't like God. If he's real, he don't like me.

Wait, this is right when you get out?

No, when I get in. So I'm getting in the politics now. And then by the time I was 23 years old, I ran my first yard, which is a four yard I was on. No joke. Pulled a corrections officer. I had that yard so crazy. I I was in a relationship with the CEO. I had the lieutenant on the team that was helping us make sure we could go certain places. We were drinking promethazine with codeine on the yard, smoking blunts on a four yard in the morning. It was like U of A to me, bro. That's why I said that was my taste of college. But then you get your first predator package, which means they say, literally, the state and staff says that you're a predator on the yard, and it's automatic maximum security. So that was my first one. I got four of those done on me.

Maximum security is Five by seven.

Five by seven. You can touch this. You can't even do a push-up beside yourself, and you're in there 24 hours a day. 24 hours a day. The only time you get to get out is you get to go to a wreck cage. That's the same exact, smaller than this, but dirty-ass concrete. And you get to go out there. They shackling you, walk you out there like that, and then unshackle you. Once you're in the cage, you'll never out of your cell without full on cuffs on. So you never can do that. And like bird baths, you take a bird bath in your cell because showers is like, when you go to the shower, you get a shower either Monday, Wednesday, or Friday, or Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. Not to mention that by the time they put you in the shower, say you're up on Henry run, they put you up on the shower in Henry run, then they go down Ida run, whatever, all the way down to Able Baker, Charlie on the other side. So by the time they come back to you, it's almost an hour, you're full on drenched in sweat in this little hot ass shower that you just went in.

So I don't even shower, bro. When I was in maximum, usually I'd spend a year not even leaving that cell, bro. You spend a year in the same freaking cell.

What do you do?

And I'm claustrophobic.

You read? Did you Like, are you-Do you want to know how crazy it is and how hard my time was?

I'm so ADD and ADHD, I never even read in there. I was in VCU where all you get is a Bible and didn't even open it. I would just pace, and I still know my thing. I would pace one and a half steps this way, one and a half steps this way. And you know why I do it like that, why I still lean like this is because it's always freezing cold in there. So every time you're in there, all you do is like this. You have your hands in there because they don't give you anything. You go like this one and a half steps this way, and then my shoulder bounce on the door like this, and I turn on like this, go one and a half steps that way, and then my shoulder hit the other wall. Oh, my gosh. And you just paced for twelve hours. It saved my life. I was 170 pounds on the yard, strung out, shooting dope. I go to the hole for 11 months. I get out 263 pounds. Finally, I was able to get 11 months of not even positive shit, but at least not just doing drugs on the yard and this prison politics.

You know what I mean? And I'm actually able to every week, I get a phone call, some call my brother, my mom, and I'm actually talking like normal stuff now, not yard politics, because I'm hearing every day for twelve years straight. But I got out of prison. I didn't even know what to do, bro. I didn't even have a plan. I thought somehow get a construction job, try and figure out how to get sober, but have no fun, but at least you're not in prison. If I can find success, that's what it looks like. And I didn't even know how I was going to do that.

And so you get out.

Get out. And I'm entitled to party. Never been on a date, never worked a day in my life, never been to a bar, never done any of this stuff. I was a little kid when I went out. So any normal good place to spend time would be Sandbar. So I went to that Sanbar over there, and I took you six days a week.

I opened that Sanbar.

Yeah, pulled There, we were probably the ones that closed it down, but pulled chicks there every day, just hook up with chicks every day. Did nothing positive, get an assault case on parole, blacked out. And then I went else on fentanyl, blacked out. Wasn't even doing drugs, but I was blacked out drunk, and I had to go through my phone afterwards, and I ended up leaving the bar, blacked out drunk. And one of my youngsters from the joint literally hit me up in Guadalupe. I drove my truck from Hobnob right there in Chandler to Guadalupe, blacked out drunk. Don't even remember driving and wake up in an ambulance, nine months out of prison.

And I'm like, It was fat and all?

And I wake up in an ambulance and I'm like, I've never still been out of prison nine months. All I've done is drink and party. Nothing bad, but nothing positive either. Did you have a job? No. I have this mindset, who the hell wants to hire me? You know what I mean?

Did you... Mom's helping you?

My dad would give me 1,500 bucks a month at first. That's it. Just to live off of. And that was the deal. I'd have to act like I was putting in job applications every day. And I wake up in an ambulance and I tell the paramedic, what the hell happened? And he's like, You're overdose. I was like, I don't even use drugs anymore. He's like, you did today. By the time they got me to the hospital, my heart was only beating six beats a minute. They gave me seven shots of Narcan, had to resest me. When they found me, I was dead. No heartbeat, completely dead. This is another reason that I really believe in God. I didn't find myself until after it was my ex-girlfriend sister found me, right? She went home after work to go tanning. She pulled in the parking lot, parked her car, got out of her car, walked up to the door, put her hand on the door to open the door. She said the second she put her hand on that door, something told her to go home for some reason. She said She took her hand off the door, got back in her car to go home and take a nap, finds me dead in the bathtub.

If she even walks in there and then decides to go home, like another few seconds, I'm probably not here today. And instantly, I remember in that hustle bed, I was thinking, Why did I survive this? Why could I just die and been done with this life, man? I was done, bro. I still hadn't even worked, so I didn't even know if I was going to make something of myself. I felt like I've been fighting my whole life, I was just done. But I always wanted to kill myself, but I never would because of my mom. And I just wanted to die. And then I went from that moment to thinking, maybe I was saved, and this is God, and maybe this is my chance to try and get sober. So my little talk I have with myself in the hospital bed is, how much do you want to prove that you're entitled to go drink and party and pull chips and have fun? Or do you want to at least try and get sober and figure life out at least once? I told myself, give yourself a shot. You've never even tried to live life.

So went out to South Dakota, stayed with my dad, went to two or three AA meetings a week, had no idea what to do. But luckily, my co-defendant was the finance director at a marque up in Scottsdale. So he's going to give me a job to go sell cars, and I got out. And my dad sent me back here with five pairs of khakis, buy one, get one free at Kohl's, five dress shirts, buy one, get one free. And I had to pay him back for my first paycheck. And made 10 grand my first month ever working selling cars. And 13 months, I was in finance manager, making 350 grand a year with my own office and just murdered shit. I just turned a drug addiction to a money addiction, got sober and just changed everything, bro.

So you go into cars. My dad used to run Amco on Scott Dylan Thomas. He owned a transmission shop before that. I grew up at auto shops. So I love cars. I bought and sold over a thousand cars. Really? Wow. I bought them on Craigslist. I used to buy G20 infinities, Honda Civics, and just clean them all up, put new tires on them, change the oil. And my dad would fix them if they need anything.

That's dope.

But that's great. So you got 350 grand coming in. And then what's the next calling after this?

So then I do that for four or five years. And you know, as well as anybody, money doesn't make you happy. It's cool when you first get it, but then after a while, all it does is open your eyes up to more expensive stuff. And then you realize you don't really have as much money as you think you have. So I did that and it worked forever.

A lot of hours, 70 hours a week.

Yeah. That's what I'm saying. I'm working on these hours. I have this $9 million house, but it's like, what is am I doing this for? I'm not meant to do this. I know for a fact I'm not meant to do this. I had no idea what I was going to do except a vice TV producer had reached out to me. And have you ever seen that show? I was a teenage fellow. Season 2, episode 5 is my whole life story. It's the Shot Call episode. So vice producer reaches out to me and I was like, I have 400 followers on Instagram. I was like, Man, I'm trying to make a run at this shit. I'm dumb and naive as enough as it is. You got a great story. Yeah, I got a few hundred grand saved up. I'm like, If this Joe Schmoz can get Instagram rich, I can get Instagram rich, too. That was my mindset back then. But I knew I wanted to help you. I knew my story wasn't meant to sit in that office all day long. And I was on the free rent at Indian School right there. So the finance office is like the glass window on a marquee if you ever see it, if you drive by, you'll see it now.

That was my office right there. So Saturday, I would just look at cars driving on the free, and I'd be like, dude, I spent Saturdays locked in a cell, and I'm like, no, I'm just locked in another cell out here. It just felt like this was not what I was meant to do. But I had no idea or no experience. I hadn't done anything positive. I'm not one of those guys that did schooling or programming or anything. So I don't know anything. I just know how to It's all shit. But I saved a few hundred grand. I was like, I'm just going to go meet with whoever the hell I can. Don't even know who. But I had a rule with myself. I went to a different gym every day, and I would, at bare minimum, at least get one new dude's phone number every single day and go up to the dude that looked like you. I had nice shit on at the gym or something like that. Just go spark up a conversation. And I used to get roached by my brother and his friends back then because they'd say I would go to the gym to pull dudes.

But I'm like, look at the network I built by myself, though. Literally two years. You know what I'm saying? You ask how I met Snow. Just the same way I do, just networking. I don't know, but I know everybody just like you. So I did all that. And then luckily, someone tells you, I get interviewed on a couple of shows, and they're like, this dude needs his own show. So I try and launch this podcast and launch the first episode of that one. It gets 20,000 views. And I was like, holy shit, we might be on something here. Started the podcasting for a few years. You wrote the book? Yes. Started playing some crypto. End up writing a book and then meet my just amazing wife. And then to come full circle. I had white pride tattooed across my stomach. Got it. Seven sessions, the most painful shit ever. Got that completely removed. And I had to tell my wife at first. I had one session left, but I told her a second day I met her, I was like, I got to tell you something because I had a bad experience with that. Not telling a woman before.

I flipped out in the middle of the night when I first got out. So I tell her and she's like, Oh, I don't care about that. I'm like, Are you serious? For real? Another cool thing about my wife is I don't know stuff except for what I see. So I'm thinking this is a gorgeous black woman. I'm like, My only role is don't talk politics with her before you see what woman she is. Her second day over at my house, she's like, I just got to ask you one question. I was like, What? She's like, What's your political beliefs? I was like, I don't really do politics. She's like, come on. She's like, Who do you believe? Would you be a conservative or a Republican if you could say? I was like, All I could say is this. I don't like Joe Biden. She's like, Oh, my God. Thank God. I was like, all right, we got something on here. And she grew up mormon, like complete polar opposite. She was an all-American volleyball player. She was mormon? Yeah, grew up. Nesa? Queen Creek. She was in Queen Creek as well. So she has the kill record at Colorado State, then went to Grand Canyon, got her master's degree, full rides everywhere.

I was going to go play professionally overseas, but tore her Achilles. She knows she's a chick I just want to hook up with. And I would have never even tried to have a relationship with her because I was like, I'd have to do way too much fixing internally to date a woman That's what I'm saying. I'm not going to say it's the greatest thing that's ever happening. It's just such a far understatement. This woman changed my life beyond belief. Changed it in ways I didn't even know it was changed and made me believe that I can do so much. At first, I just thought I had to get sober. That's just such a...

It's a low bar.

The barometer. That's where these old guys, they've been sitting on it for 30 years, going to Amy. It's like, cool, congrats, but you got so over 30 years ago. Who do you help? What have you done? Or what have you fixed on top of that? You know what I'm saying?

Well, their dream is too small. Absolutely. That's most people that I meet, they're like, I want to do this. I'm like, yeah, that's money.

What else? Literally. Then what are you going to do after you do that?

Then they say, I do this all for my wife and kids. I'm like, what about you? If you can't love yourself.

Yeah. Yeah. Then the thing I'm most proud of now is, I was kicked out of prison. I'll tell you this, when I was in an assault, took me home in the last year, right? Ssu, who's like the gang detectives in there. If you get booked on anything in prison, it's from the SSU staff. So once we find out this guy survived and everything, now I'm like, All right, this investigation is up. The investigation is supposed to be for 30 days. It's called a 2A investigation, right? They can extend them every 30 days, but whatever. It's usually a month. Sometimes they extend it twice, right? So they come in. I've been here three or four months now, and I'm telling the SSL. I was like, Yo, what's up? You guys got to let me out of this hole. Let me go to the yard. I'm like, You can't expect me to go home after 12 years in solitary confinement and then make something in myself. That was back. I'm thinking they want you to succeed. And he's like, No, he's like, You're done. He's like, You're done. He's like, Myraoff, we're done with you. Verbatim, he says, We're done with you in here in prison.

We're going to let the streets have their luck with you. You're going to sit in this cell until you go home. And my release, dude, I was released in five-point shackles walking to my release cage. Like with all the release guys walking their own thing, I was separate with five-point shackles completely walking in there. You got to see the video after this, but I had no idea what to do. And now I have one of the biggest podcasts. So they all have tablets now. I'm the second most down on to doing all the prison tablets across the entire country. The only dude that's bigger is that Eckartoli and God behind Bars because they do their stuff together. I develop prison curriculum now that I get to teach to prisons all over. And prisons and states pay me to come teach inmates what to do now.

What are your number one lessons? Mindset is number one, anything.

Routine and mindset is anything. Because just like you said a second ago, people are too small-minded. You You just have to get them to open up their mindset to show them what's possible. Here's the deal. I thought I had a cheat code, and I thought I was doing a disservice to everybody that had been locked up before when I made 10 grand that first month. And I was like, I got that first check, and it was like 4,400 bucks after taxes for my bonus check. And I was like, oh, my God. All it did was show me, holy shit, it's possible. And I remember thinking like, why the F didn't they tell me that we could do this in prison? You know what I mean? How much harder I would have tried to do something productive if I knew that? If we had known that we could do cool shit, we get out of here, people are going to trial a lot harder in prison. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. And which is why my curriculum is so different because anybody you see watching go to these prison yards, they're going to minimum security yards, these low security yards, and they're talking these dudes that are in and out of prison their whole lives.

I go to the high, high security yards. Soledad, that place I went, that's for it. It's called a direct out from the shoe. So anybody that comes from security housing, which is Supermax, goes directly there. It's your first yard ever out of the shoe. And if you don't make it there, you go right back to the shoe. And then when I got done with that program there, and I get these killers on the yard, bro, to cry, bro, and literally act like I've never even seen dudes in Prison act in my entire life. And Not only that, when I get done with her, you know what the warden tells? He goes, Dude, where do you want to go next? I was like, What's a higher security prison than this? He's like, Salina's, but he's like, We can't go to Salina's. I'm like, Why? He's like, They're killing each other right now. They're killing cops and everything like that. He's like, No one can go to that yard right now. I'm like, All right, if they clear it up, can I go there? That's what I want to do. Because when you get the shot callers to pass it down, you can change 100 lives with one person.

If you just change those little kids that are in and out of prison every two, three years, you're not changing nobody. You're barely changing one out of a thousand of them. If you can get the shot callers to preach this shit on the yard.

Well, the other thing is change it in the streets.

Yes, absolutely.

Which is why-Because they can make a big impact going, look, you guys, you listen to me.

They were big. Which is why I finally do coaching out here, too. I didn't want to forever. No joke, for so is one of the guys that talked me into it, too. And I didn't realize how many people are just like, don't know how to live life, bro. And that's what I'm just... I feel like I'm a pro at, bro. You could throw me anywhere, but I'm going to figure it out. You know what I'm saying? I always said like this, you could put me in the middle of the mountain of Afghanistan, and in about six months, I'm going to be that mountain. Yeah, I don't know how, but I will.

I don't know how it will.

Yeah, for sure. You know what I'm saying? You got the same trait.

I never went through, dude. You know what's interesting is somebody's cat could die when they're nine, and that will traumatize them for life. And somebody else could watch their mother overdose, and it doesn't mean anything of the way they were lived. So you don't know what people go through and what's a lot to first people. A hundred %. You've been through a lot more shit, dude. I've had a lot of impactful things, but I look back and I'm like, Man, everything happened for a reason. I had great parents. They went through their own trials. But at the end of the day, one of the most important things is, look, I got a lot of people that don't believe the same way I do. Not in God, but I just had to have a big heart and just say, You know what? Look, I'm not going to coach you on this, but your uncle, your dad, your brother, I don't know, maybe if they've seen you. And plus you got kids, and obviously, you don't want them to leave a bad influence, but if you met with them every once in a while. For sure, yeah.

I don't know, man.

Let's hear it. No, I want to be real.

Yeah, the deal is for me is like...

Yeah, but a guy like me, I didn't get to where I did not listen to dudes like you.

It's just I would never want regrets. I tell you, dude, there's a lot of regrets I have. My dad almost died through COVID, and I prayed hard. I'm crying, going to visit him, and he's like, I'm not ready to go. I said, If you let my dad live, not only will I be a better son, but I'll tell everybody on every stage. And this guy calls me a year later and goes, Did you make a deal with God? Shut the fuck. No, I'm not kidding. And I got goosebumps, man. I'm walking around and he goes, I don't know what you did, but I imagine you on your knees praying. And I was like, Who are you? He's like, I'm not any crazy. He goes, This is the first time I've ever done this. He goes, But whatever deal you made, make sure you keep it because just as quick as he gave it to you, you could take it away. And I was like, Oh, boy. I redid my PowerPoint. And so the first thing I do in my orientation is show when I got baptized and I believe in Jesus Christ. But listen, I'm not going to tell you guys whatever religion you are.

I'm just telling you who I am. But yeah, it's important. Wow, man. That's incredible. I started hanging out with Travis Hearn. If you get a chance, you need to go meet him at Impact Church.

I would love to. I It's only been to two churches. It's been an impact. Then I got to Echoes with Daniel Goulding out there now, too. But yeah.

Dude, I'm going to start. I feel like it's my obligation. If you are, four out of five people will go to church if you invite them, but nobody invites them?

Really?

I'm going to go blow that church up, dude. I'm going to bring our A1 trucks out. We're going to get there 45 minutes early. I just want to go once a month and just show up and be dressed like this and just say, Listen, guys, if you want this life, I don't care if you come or not. I'm just inviting you, and then you decide. I'm going to go meet with Travis, have him talk to us.

I'll tell you this, now, all the cool shit I've done, everything, I'm most proud of the parents I'm not on my kids and stuff. Because what's crazy is the household I raise right now is one I've never even seen. Seen, except in the movies, which is crazy to me. Think about that. I get to raise my kids and have a standard in my household, and they get to see love in my household. I've never even seen in my entire life. You know what I'm saying? Me and my wife are like this, bro. Five times a day, I'm like, Babe, anytime off I get up, do you need anything? Can I do anything for you? Like checking on each other, putting the other person first and making sure the kids go first over anything. Out of anything, I was going to say I'm rambling there, but out of anything that I was most proud about, it was... Damn, I just lost my train of thought. I was saying it with that.

It's all good, man. We added this yet. So you teach mindset. Where are you going from here? I mean, what is your big area? This is cool. What's your dream?

My dream is I want to be the biggest speaker, and I just want to travel to prisons across the entire world, bro.

I got so many people I'm going to introduce to you. Three that come to mind. And all of these guys came from prison. One of my buddies trafficking a lot, a lot, a lot of cocaine. Spent a long time. He's worth hundreds of millions of dollars today. Another buddy changing people's lives, getting them in shape. Sean, I want to introduce you to these guys because I don't know if you enjoy kicking it with guys that know the serve time like you. Yeah, of course. Keegan came out. His dad had a small business, electric business. Well, Keegan learned how to do HVAC in prison, and he stayed in the hole because they transferred him to Atlanta. And he's like, I can't go out there. He's got stories, and he gets teary-eyed. So he just spent it locked up, and he gets out. You know what's crazy about prison? If these guys come out, if they want to make it, they can make as much money, they could have any relationship, they could live the best life ever if they choose to because they've already seen it. They've been to Rock Bottom. It's straight up. That's what I teach.

It's like this, if they find their brother... I don't even want to call it a brotherhood. I like to call it a wolf pack because wolves will attack. If an animal attacks one wolf, they all come in. And Navy Seals It was all wolf packs. I spent some time with Jocko, extreme ownership. And dude, he's soft when you're with him. He lives this David Goggins hard face. I'm not going to say he's a soft dude, but he's been through the Ringer, and he gave me some of the best compliments ever. And he's like, Look, if you ever want to get into business, I'm an investor. Just call me. He's like, I'm in. I get access to these people, but I don't go in there going, Hey, dude, here's what I want to do. Wait till you see me. I'm just like, Hey, man, we'll be friends. I want to learn from you. I'm going to take notes, and I'm going to actually do the work. So, dude, I like your story. I love your story. And the fact that you're going back to the prisons, and the impact that it could have externally, I mean, that's real, and that's massive, massive impact.

No, but like you said, dude, it makes your mom safer at home.

No, we got a rule here. It's treat people like mom. If you didn't raise by great mom, maybe it was a grandma, maybe it was an uncle, maybe it was a coach. But just do the right thing. And I don't need to teach my guy sales. I'm like, smile more, play with the dog, make friends, and do what you would do for your mom's house. If we do that, we're winning. Absolutely. But they can't believe Here's the hard part. A lot of people believe that's a lot of money. My buddy that lives in Fresno, his average ticket in a track is 38,000, average ticket. And I go, What's a lot of money? If we all wrote down what's a lot of money, somebody would put 10,000, another person would put 10 million. I'm like, When you You're not in a house. You want things done right. And if you got two little kids at home like you do, you want to make sure they're trustworthy with your wife when she's alone in the HVAC or whatever goes out. What other things do you want the audience to know about?

Don't ever stop finding your true purpose. I can't tell you how many guys that I know that I work with now, they're 30s, 40s, 50s, and just still feel lost and feel like they don't know where to go. It's never too late to restart. I didn't start working until I was 30 years old. I never worked a day in my life. Whether you're 40 years old, and I did that stuff, and I was semi-retired within five years. You know what I'm saying? You could legit restart anything. Another thing I like to do is I try to get dudes from prison ready to attack the world. Just like you said, they've had their backs against the wall. When they get done going through my program in prison, the number one thing is their mindset should be that they have an advantage on regular people out here because of what we've been through. So when you can use your screw-ups to help you better off, you have an advantage on the normal society.

You embrace the failure and you remember where you came from. Dude, it's hard. Listen, would you rather hire a PhD or somebody that's been through 10 years of literally war in business and they've been through all the mistakes.

Absolutely.

I'll tell you, there's a great book you need to throw on the top of your list. It's called Man's Search for Meaning.

Okay.

The dude went through Holocaust, and he made it out. When you could find meaning in a place like that, I mean, I would imagine that the Germans, that was worse than prison when you're watching your family's getting murdered. Every Jewish person just treated like their bones. Their arms are smaller than my wrist. That's the ultimate to go through that. Read more of the Bible. I got a book that every day it's a new scripture that I just read, and then there's the Bible app.

I know. I just got that Bible app. I read, I do that, and I'm been reading, I think I don't even know, the Book of John or James, one of the two.

Well, my dad could quote every scripture.

And by the way, that's how I strive to be. I used to strive to make a lot of money and all that stuff. Now, you know what's crazy? My number one goal, aside from raise my family great, is I want to be able to just know the Bible like the back of my hand. I want to be one of those guys that... I always say to my wife, I want to be one of those guys I would have made fun of when I was in prison, called them a Bible thumper and stuff like that, because why not? All the stuff that we do, look at our lives, bro. You know what I'm saying? Seriously.

I wake up every day, and here's the cool thing. I don't have any pain. I live in the United States of America. Some days you're like, Man, I just want to do more. And you're like, Dude, I am drinking out of a Fire hose 24. It's self-inflicted. My mom goes last week, she goes, Hey, honey, you seemed really quiet the other night at dinner. Are you okay? I was like, Well, A1 has got 920 employees. I got the family office launching three softwares, not to mention 20 other investments. I've got my event with 1,500 people, and that's growing. We're building two houses. I'm engaged. We want to have No, I'm like, Dude, that's the...

Oh, my God. That was the one that just popped in. I can't even tell you.

It's like, I'm good, but just know I'm in my own head a lot.

I'm in my head.

But there's one day a month where I'm like, Man, why do I do all this? And then the rest of the time, I'm like, Dude, let's go.

You know what I just started doing two weeks ago with me and my wife, too, is one day on the weekend, taking no phones.

No phones?

Yeah. It's a big thing. You don't realize how much... Because even I'm pretty good, bro. I'm Really. I change all the diapers. I wake up them every morning and night. I'm a very, veryNo phones on Saturdays. We're doing this Sunday this week. So we just pick a day, whatever we have something going on, but we're doing this Sunday, no phones, me and the wife. And it does make a difference because even if you're not bad with it, you realize all your attention is there. You don't realize how much you're just flicking it on commercials. Instead, you're playing with your son or something the whole time or giving your wife more attention. It makes a huge difference.

No phones, no TV. That'd be crazy.

Wow. Then you really get to know. The weather's nice now, so you could do that.

Yeah, Yeah. I was with a buddy yesterday in this room, and he sold his house in Paradise Valley or in Arcadia, and he sold his house in Canada, and he just lives. He's been to 70 countries. No way. He's got two duffle bags he brings, and he works three months in each in different countries. I'm like, Dude, I don't know if I could do that. But he's like, Dude, I live the best freaking life. Imagine that. And he's on major stages. He gets paid 100 grand per stage. You know what I mean? But by the way, I love stages. I I love my time. But every time I leave here to do a stage, I'm losing a shit ton of money. For sure. But I'm impacting lives. So what's it about? Is it about money or impact?

I can't believe you have that many employees, bro.

No, they're my coworkers. We're a good team. The thing is, they've changed my life just much, if not more than I've changed theirs. That's awesome. How do people get a hold of you, Peter?

On the gram is petermierhoff. My website petermierhoff. Com. I'm on every platform, TikTok, podcast. Don't forget that, roll call with Chappee on every platform, too, YouTube, all that stuff. I'm on everywhere, bro.

What's your favorite podcast you've done?

No offense, Josh Snow, bro. Really? I'm not just saying it because he's coming up here. I tell him all the time, bro.

What did you like about his podcast?

When you know the whole circle of all the big dudes around everywhere, 90% of them dudes are fake, even the ones that aren't fake, 80% of those aren't genuine. He's just real genuine. To be honest, he gave me a shout. My show wasn't even really big. I was shocked he would do my show. This is the guy Josh Noahs. He showed up to do my show. Remember, I'm just starting, I think it was my 20th episode, no, nothing big. Someone just vouched, and he came and did it, and then showed up 10 minutes late because he forgot to bring me present. So he went to Best Buy and dropped $1,000 getting me all his products from Best Buy, and then just gave me a whole bag of all his snow products he just bought from Best Buy so I could try all his products. And just the greatest conversation. And you always get it Me, I always think of a guy when you see someone like him, you're like, Dude, whatever. How much money did his parents give him? Or how many? You know what I'm saying? Or how many?

He saved his parents house. I was partners with him when he was 17.

And grew up, and I heard what you did. That's why I'm a huge, huge fan of yours. He speaks more than highly of you. But then when you finally grew up on the west side of Phoenix and didn't even have a computer. Just crazy, bro. He's the only podcast I did where I was like, Holy shit. No way. Then what? Oh, my God. Then what?

He is a brain. He sits down And I don't know how he does it, man, but you talk about brilliance. I don't know what his IQ is, but I still-He's confusing to even talk to.

Even when I hang out, I'm like, Dude, I feel like I need a decoder to even talk to you. You know what I'm saying?

I literally was like, Dude, I need garage floor help. I showed up there with one of my guys. I'm like, Give them the nine. Fix everything, replace it all, give them new openers. And I said, Josh, give me one hour a month. And he would have done that for free. But he's like, Dude, he's like, By the way, I know every group you're part of. He's like, You're one of the only real ones. He's like, These guys drive Ferraris, dude. They don't have any money in the bank. Yeah, for sure. No, man, I appreciate it. Give me one book. Because you just got started getting into reading. Is there any books that you would recommend other than Against All Ods?

Besides Against All Ods, the only book that I can legit be real to my character and not lying to people is the Bible.

All right, let's go. Finally, close this out, man. One final thought. We talked about a lot of cool stuff. We know your story. Just give the audience something to think about.

Life is hard. It's hard for everybody. The only time that you're never going to progress is when you actually give up. The only thing that I did right for, I always say 31 years of my life, is that I didn't give up. I don't take no for an answer. If you believe in yourself, you can literally achieve anything. The fact that I'm sitting here today should show you that. If anybody is not happy where they are, the only thing stopping you from getting the life you want is you just doing the same thing over and over again every day.

Oh, I love it, man.

Thanks, Peter. Yeah. Thank you, bro. I appreciate you. I appreciate it.

This is a horrible handshake on my part. All right. That was great, brother. Hey there, thanks for tuning into the podcast today. Before Before I let you go, I want to let everybody know that Elevate is out and ready to buy. I can share with you how I attracted a winning team of over 700 employees in over 20 states. The insights in this book are powerful and can be applied to any business or organization. It's a real game changer for anyone looking to build and develop a high-performing team like over here at A1 Garage door service. If you want to learn the secrets to help me transfer my team from stealing the toilet paper to a group of 700 plus employees rowing in the same direction, head over to elevateandwin. Com/elevate. /podcast and grab a copy of the book. Thanks again for listening, and we'll catch up with you next time on the podcast.