0:00

Hi everyone , I'm Scott Brandley .

0:02

And I'm Alisha Coakley . Every member of

0:04

the church has a story to share , one that

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can instill faith , invite growth and

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inspire others .

0:10

On today's episode , we're going to hear how

0:12

the Mormon Wolf of Wall Street found

0:14

gratitude in suffering behind

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bars . Welcome to Latter-day

0:19

Lights . Welcome to Latter-day

0:21

Lights . We're so glad you're here with us

0:23

today and we are grateful to have

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Shane Baldwin with us joining

0:28

the show . Shane , how are you doing

0:30

today ? Awesome , scott

0:32

, alisha , thanks for having me on . Yeah

0:34

, thanks so much for jumping on . It's

0:37

funny because when you had messaged us , I have a feeling

0:39

that you're going to be able to get through

0:41

this , and I'm glad that you're here with us today .

0:44

And I'm glad that you're here with us today . And

0:46

I'm glad that you're here with

0:48

us today , shit . So what I'm going to tell you

0:50

now is I do have a little video

0:52

message . I

0:55

have the privilege of being able

0:57

to kind of like vet the stories beforehand , and

0:59

so I always do a little FBI snooping and

1:03

I don't know , I always sorry , scott , I just always embarrass

1:06

you . It is what it is so . So I did a little

1:08

snooping and I found your profile picture on Facebook and

1:11

I was like , whoa , like

1:14

you and your wife like should just be on like the cover of

1:16

every magazine , pretty couple . And I was like , oh

1:18

my gosh , I like send a picture of my husband

1:20

. I'm like honey , look at how pretty these people

1:23

are , you're so kind , you're

1:25

so kind . No , I'm serious . So I was

1:27

just like , wow , fantastic

1:30

.

1:30

I don't know Like anyone listening should just

1:32

come and watch , you don't

1:34

have to go to prison , but they do say that prison

1:37

does preserve you , so I've been preserved

1:39

for five years in prison . So

1:41

, and my wife that

1:44

you mentioned , that's the first girl I

1:46

went on a date with when I got out of prison .

1:48

And somehow .

1:49

I sold her on Mary in this ex

1:51

con so I feel wow

1:58

, well , I was very happy .

1:59

I was like oh , I just , I don't know , I

2:01

love pretty things .

2:02

It's funny , yeah , she looks at people's faces

2:05

and she's like , oh , they're so pretty . I look out

2:07

their hair . I

2:10

wish I had hair like that .

2:12

Scott is just admiring the

2:14

web going on there .

2:16

I know I'm jealous of your hair . I am too

2:18

.

2:18

I'm pretty . My hair is pretty flat .

2:19

today I need whatever product you're using , shane

2:21

, I need to yeah , my

2:23

wife actually uses my product too , so we share products

2:26

.

2:27

Well then , you're going to have to let me know what that is .

2:28

So I can in my beauty routine . Sounds

2:31

great .

2:32

Oh , awesome . Well , aside from being

2:34

a beautiful couple , tell us a little

2:36

bit more about yourself .

2:38

Yeah , you know I'm an

2:40

author , so I have a book out . It's

2:43

called the Honest Lie . We'll get

2:45

into that . I'm a speaker

2:48

. I was a

2:50

co-owner of a sales

2:52

organization and I just sold my

2:55

interest about three months ago and

2:57

I did a YouTube series called Million in Sixty

3:00

that I just got done filming . I spent 60

3:02

days and the show was me

3:04

making a million dollars in 60 days and

3:06

showing how that's possible . So that's

3:09

on YouTube , and so you know , I've been

3:11

doing a variety of different things . I'm involved

3:13

in a number of different startups and

3:16

I'm heavily involved in

3:18

the gospel

3:20

of Jesus Christ and so I'm excited to be

3:22

on your show and talk about my

3:25

experience with the gospel and my journey

3:27

with it .

3:28

Awesome . And now you've been

3:30

married . For how long ?

3:32

So I've been married for three years .

3:34

I got out of prison in 2020

3:36

.

3:37

And two weeks after I got out , I sent

3:39

a DM to my now

3:41

wife and she accepted

3:43

a date , first date . I went on

3:45

and after going on one date

3:47

with her , I knew I had to close that

3:49

deal . So that's

3:52

the biggest deal I've ever closed and I've closed a

3:54

lot of deals , so yeah .

3:55

I feel really really fortunate . That's

3:57

awesome . Any kiddos yet Not

4:00

with .

4:01

I have four and

4:04

she didn't have any . And so

4:07

we're we're in our 40s . She

4:09

doesn't think she can have kids , but

4:12

I don't know . This week she's been waking up in

4:14

the morning , sick . So I told her . I said

4:16

maybe you're pregnant .

4:16

So who knows ? All right

4:19

, well , we'll just put a little fingers crossed

4:21

if that's what you guys want . That's

4:23

what the Lord wants I'm down . There you go

4:25

. I love that . That's . That's the easy way to

4:27

do it right .

4:30

Perfect , awesome . Well , shane , we're

4:32

really excited to hear your story . Why

4:35

don't we just get right to it and turn the time

4:37

over to you , my friend Perfect

4:39

?

4:40

So I was adopted as a baby

4:42

through LDS social services . My

4:45

birth mother was , I think , 15

4:47

years old when she got pregnant and

4:50

I was able to meet them

4:52

when I turned . Well , I was around

4:54

, I was 33 years old and somebody called

4:56

me and said hey , I think you're my brother , and

4:58

I was able to reconnect . My

5:01

birth parents ended up getting married after they had given

5:03

me up for adoption and I

5:05

was able to ask her . I said why did you make

5:07

that decision to give me up ? And she says I've

5:10

never told anybody this , but an angel

5:12

came to me and told me that's what I needed to do , and

5:15

that was really powerful for

5:18

me to learn that

5:20

. So I got adopted by Dwight and Cindy

5:22

Baldwin . They couldn't have kids

5:24

. They didn't have any kids . So I was

5:26

their first child and

5:28

I got adopted into the most

5:30

incredible situation

5:33

and I think

5:35

the Lord kind of knew that I was rebellious by nature

5:37

. So my mom and dad are super

5:40

straight arrows and they

5:42

raised me , you know , in the church and

5:44

in the gospel , and every morning

5:46

playing throughout the house would be the primary hymns

5:49

. So I grew up

5:51

, you know , in the church . My

5:54

dad was my bishop when I

5:56

was a teenager , thankfully , so

5:58

I never wanted to go have to talk to my dad about

6:00

anything . It was a pretty good teenager

6:02

. I was a pretty good athlete

6:04

in high school I played football

6:07

and basketball and then at 19 years

6:09

old , I decided to go on a mission in 1999

6:12

. I got called to South Africa and

6:14

I was going to say I went there .

6:16

Yeah , I went to Cape Town . Oh , no way . So are you familiar with the

6:18

language ?

6:21

Yeah so my

6:23

first several companions

6:26

. I was in Johannesburg

6:29

and my first several

6:31

companions were Tulsa's from

6:34

that tribe and I said teach me the

6:36

language , and so I

6:38

learned all the different dialects

6:41

and it was just a great place . Scott

6:44

, you were probably there in

6:46

the what mid 90s , early 90s .

6:49

Right after apartheid , yeah , so

6:51

like 94 , 95

6:53

to 97 , I think it was .

6:55

Incredible time , right ? I mean , the church was

6:57

brand new in the townships and

7:00

you know , the church

7:02

was really new . And so I

7:04

had just some incredible experiences

7:06

to share one briefly I

7:08

got sent to an area called Tabanshu

7:10

. It was my second area and I got a call

7:13

from the mission president because I wasn't supposed to be going

7:15

to that area , I was supposed to be going to a different area

7:17

, and he said I have to change your assignment

7:19

. I said well , how come ? He said well

7:21

, your new companion is going to be Elder Mariebe

7:23

. Elder Mariebe is from Nigeria , he said

7:25

he just pulled a knife on his companion

7:27

, elder Hansen , chased him around the apartment

7:30

, and so we have to separate those two . And

7:33

Elder Mariebe is going to be your companion . And

7:35

I'm like oh so

7:38

he said don't worry , though , you'll only be there for

7:40

maybe one transfer six weeks , we're going to shut

7:43

down the area . The area only has six

7:45

members of the church and even the branch president's

7:47

inactive , and we're going

7:49

to shut it down . And you have to drive 45 minutes

7:51

to the area because the missionaries

7:54

kept getting robbed that lived in the area , so

7:56

we had to remove them from the area . So not

7:58

only was I getting a companion that was

8:00

a little crazy I was going to a really

8:02

tough area . And I

8:04

remember , after getting that call , I went into the

8:06

bathroom and I just knelt down and I

8:08

said , heavenly Father , you put me here for

8:10

a reason . I need to be with this companion

8:13

for a reason and I'm going to this area for

8:15

a reason , just help me

8:17

. And I went out to that area and

8:20

we had so much success in

8:22

that six week period reactivating

8:24

people and baptizing people . It

8:26

got to the point to where I had

8:28

the mission president by me and above

8:30

the ground pool , because we were meeting in a

8:32

trailer and

8:34

we had so many baptisms that we needed

8:37

like a pool to do it in and

8:39

we just had one of the most amazing

8:41

experiences of

8:44

my life in bringing people to Christ

8:46

in that area of Tabanchu . By

8:48

the end of my mission I

8:51

was working with Elder Robert C Oakes

8:53

he was the , I

8:56

guess , area president at the time and

8:59

we were able to go out because we had had

9:01

so much success in that area . They had to build a chapel

9:03

, and so at the end of my mission

9:05

the chapel was built and I was able to go out there

9:07

with Elder Oakes and dedicate

9:10

that chapel . So my

9:12

mission experience was just spectacular

9:14

and I'm sure , scott , you can attest the people

9:16

in South Africa are just some of the most

9:19

humble , god-fearing

9:23

, loving people on planet

9:25

earth and they were just so receptive to

9:28

the restored gospel . So

9:30

I got home for my mission and I

9:32

married a girl that had written me on

9:34

my mission . I

9:36

went to BYU Hawaii . I got involved

9:38

with a company called Clean Flix , owned

9:41

some franchises , if

9:43

you remember Clean Flix . I

9:46

sold those in 2004 and

9:49

had some early success and

9:52

I got offered a job to go work

9:54

at Merrill Lynch with my dad . So

9:57

what you're about to hear is the real-life story

9:59

of the prodigal son . So I worked with

10:01

my father for three years and

10:03

after three years I decided I wanted

10:05

to do my own thing . I wanted

10:08

to start my own company , so

10:10

I left my father's business and I had a

10:12

great gig . I played golf almost every

10:14

day when it was sunny and

10:16

I had front row seats to jazz games and my job

10:19

was just to go and convince people that

10:21

had money at other financial

10:23

institutions to transfer it to Merrill Lynch . That was

10:25

my job . It was a great job and

10:28

I just I wanted to do my

10:30

own thing . So in 2007 , I left my father's

10:32

business , started my own company called

10:34

Silverleaf , ended

10:36

up finding a niche

10:38

and an opportunity to buy bad

10:41

debt secured by real estate all

10:43

over the country from failed banks . So , during

10:45

the middle of the recession , I

10:47

ended up raising hundreds of millions of dollars

10:49

and buying these assets . And

10:52

I was young I

10:54

was 28 , 29 , 30 years old as

10:56

I was doing this , living

10:58

a pretty fast life . I

11:00

had airplanes and fast cars and

11:02

nice homes , and I

11:05

eventually ended up owning a private

11:07

golf course that I was the owner of , and

11:09

I would say a lot of this went to my head and

11:12

I started doing things

11:15

that were the

11:17

wrong things . I started

11:19

what I call managing information

11:21

not telling my investors

11:23

the whole truth and

11:26

just not doing the right things in business , just

11:28

not having integrity and

11:30

assuming that I'll be able to figure

11:32

it out until I couldn't . And

11:35

ultimately , in 2012

11:37

, 2013 , the FBI decided

11:39

to investigate me on what's called securities fraud . They

11:43

held an investigation and they offered

11:45

me a deal to go to like a federal camp at

11:47

that time , which I turned down . So

11:49

they held a grand jury to decide

11:51

if they were going to indict me and ultimately

11:54

they decided not to indict me and

11:56

that was a huge wake-up call for me . I

11:59

remember , you know , whenever we have these wake-up calls

12:01

, I think we turn to the scriptures or

12:03

we turn to God At least , that's the way it is for me and

12:07

I started reading the Book

12:09

of Mormon and there was a phrase

12:11

that I saw multiple times

12:13

that almost jumped off the page at me , and

12:16

it says to go no more out . It's

12:18

also mentioned in the New Testament that

12:20

phrase , to go no more out and

12:22

I thought to myself I don't know exactly what that means

12:25

, but whatever

12:27

it does mean , I don't want to go out anymore . So

12:29

I went on this quest for purpose . I

12:33

went on this quest to figure out how

12:36

I could best utilize the talents and gifts that

12:38

I had been blessed with . The

12:41

last thing I wanted to do was return home after

12:43

my earthly mission , return

12:45

home , report to my Heavenly Father and

12:47

have Him go . Shane , that's

12:49

not what we sent you down there to do and

12:53

it's go out time so I get sent out again

12:56

. I don't want to do that . So

12:59

I started divesting

13:01

myself from my business affairs and

13:04

investing a ton of time into the study of the scriptures

13:06

, pondering , meditating

13:09

and really asking God what my purpose is

13:11

here . By 2014

13:13

, I got this magic trick where I can make a million dollars

13:15

in 60 days . And

13:18

, sure enough , 34 days later , I made a million bucks

13:20

. Jeez , it's a story

13:22

that's in my book . I met a guy at the gym . He

13:25

had some assets . I bought them for a half a million

13:27

bucks and sold them for a million and a half . I

13:30

made a million bucks , and I had never asked

13:32

God what I should do with my money . So

13:34

I went up to the mountains . I

13:37

love this hike in Layton . It's called Adams

13:39

Canyon . I went up Adams Canyon and

13:41

I prayed and I said listen , what do you want me to do with this

13:43

money ? And I swear to you , I heard a voice say Shane

13:46

, I want you to give it away to random people , not

13:48

to a charity , but to random people . So

13:51

I was like , okay , can

13:53

I pay off my house ? It

13:55

was like , no , you can't do that . I'm like can

13:57

I use some of it to live on ? It

14:00

was like , yeah , that's fine , but

14:02

the majority of it you need to give it away . So I

14:04

started in Utah just finding random people that

14:06

were in need , and

14:09

then I decided to take massive action . I called

14:12

one of my friends who owns a door-to-door company and

14:14

I said listen , I want to go out and I want to

14:16

sell your product door-to-door . And

14:18

he said , okay , he didn't know what was going on . I

14:20

said , okay , I'm going to sell it . He didn't know what

14:23

was going on because he knew me as this rich real

14:25

estate guy , but he had somebody

14:27

that was willing to go sell for him . So I ended

14:29

up going out to Natchez , mississippi , knocking

14:32

on people's doors , and my real purpose

14:34

was to find people that were in need . And

14:37

it's really interesting what happened for

14:39

me in that moment , because

14:42

my focus was

14:44

on serving and helping other people

14:46

. It was as though I was given

14:48

some amazing gifts . For that time

14:50

I would knock on somebody's door and

14:53

I would know her name . I'll give you an example . I

14:55

knocked on a door . Lady came to the door and

14:57

I'm like , your name's Pam . She's like , yeah

14:59

, I'm like you have a daughter

15:01

that's sick . She's like

15:03

, yeah , and I said you owe us some medical

15:06

bills . I'm here to pay them off .

15:08

And it was like .

15:10

It shocked me , and

15:12

this continued to happen while I was in Natchez

15:14

Mississippi . While I was out there

15:17

, the kids in the street were like , hey , what they call

15:19

you , I'm like . Well , my name's Shane . They're

15:21

like no , no , no , what your nickname is , I'm

15:23

like I don't have a nickname . So if you go to Natchez

15:25

Mississippi , they called me

15:27

sugar Shane . That was the nickname , but

15:31

I just had this amazing experience

15:34

going door to door , and I would

15:36

tell people , as I would help them , I would

15:38

say , hey , don't tell anybody , because

15:40

I didn't want people to just come up to me knowing

15:43

that I was giving away money . I

15:45

wanted things to happen organically

15:47

, and I wanted the spirit to

15:49

direct me as to where to go

15:51

and who to help , and so that

15:53

was an incredible experience . I came

15:55

home from that experience , went

15:58

back to those mountains , still not knowing

16:00

exactly my full purpose , prayed

16:03

at the same place , and

16:06

continued to have things kind of revealed

16:08

to me of what I should do , and

16:11

the more I focused

16:13

on what my purpose is and tuning

16:15

in to

16:17

the spirit , the closer I got

16:19

to understanding my purpose . What

16:22

happened , though , is I

16:25

told God . I said listen , what

16:28

I think you're asking me to do is something that's

16:30

too big for me to do and

16:32

I don't know if I can do it . And

16:35

if I got a , sell all my belongings and go

16:37

live in a tent . To fully understand

16:39

Exactly what you want me to do , I went straight

16:41

Lehi like I'm , like I'll go do that , and

16:44

about three months later I got arrested by the

16:46

state of Utah and found

16:48

myself in an 80-foot cell . It

16:50

took me a minute , but I realized

16:52

that this was the tent God wanted

16:55

me to live in , and and and

16:57

I tell people this all the time you know

16:59

that experience for me was like going to

17:01

God's University . But when I

17:03

first went there , I thought

17:05

how can this be ? How can

17:07

that ? The state of Utah picked up the very

17:09

charges the FBI had dropped several years

17:11

later . I didn't see it coming . I

17:13

thought it was behind me and

17:16

at this time , man , I'm doing everything

17:18

that I should be doing . So right at

17:20

the time , the FBI is investigating me , I'm

17:22

doing the wrong things , and at the time

17:24

I actually get locked up like I'm

17:27

doing all the right things . And so I was really confused

17:29

by this and my

17:31

my wife , decided

17:33

that it was best that she divorced me , and I

17:35

don't blame her . I mean I'm in , I'm

17:38

in jail , so she divorces me . And I'm at my rock

17:40

bottom and I start asking

17:42

the other inmates like , hey , how do you commit

17:44

suicide ? I didn't want to live anymore

17:47

. I didn't , I didn't see purpose , so I had

17:49

lost purpose . And so I'm talking to the

17:51

other inmates and they're like Well , you can hang

17:53

yourself . And I'm like okay , how do

17:55

you do that ? They're like well , you got a kneel

17:57

down , tie it to the top bunk and just Hunch

18:00

over . I'm like well , I'll stand up . And

18:02

they're like oh , you can jump off this

18:04

ledge . And and it's like a 20-foot

18:07

drop . And I'm like now I'll just

18:09

end up paralyzed . So every way that I

18:11

learned of how people try to commit suicide

18:13

, I'm like it's not a hundred percent . So I came up with my

18:15

own plan . Wow , my own plan was

18:17

I'm not gonna eat and I'm

18:19

not gonna drink for as long as I can possibly go

18:22

. And so for

18:24

13 days , contrary to what the

18:26

internet will tell you , I went 13

18:29

days with no food or no water , and

18:31

during that time period was when

18:34

I started writing my book . So

18:36

here I am , at my rock bottom moment , and

18:38

I had been a student of guys like Dale Carnegie

18:40

, who wrote the book how to when influence people

18:42

, or Napoleon Hill thinking grow

18:44

rich . Yep , and I have a golf pencil . In

18:47

fact , I have my original manuscript

18:49

right here . This was this

18:51

is from prison . This is the original writings

18:54

. So I have a golf pencil in these

18:56

papers and I just start

18:58

writing all the positive Psychology

19:01

tips and things that I learned and

19:04

that's what I start writing during that time period

19:06

. On the 13th day I I

19:09

just knelt down in my cell and

19:12

I poured my heart out to God and

19:14

I asked him to stop my heart . I said I don't want

19:16

to do this anymore and Ultimately

19:18

I fell asleep . And when I fell asleep

19:20

, I had a dream . I was . I remember

19:22

I was in this field and this man came to

19:24

me and he said Shane , I'm here to offer you a deal

19:27

. I'm like you know I'm a deal guy . Give

19:29

me a deal . He said I'll let you travel

19:31

back to three different time periods

19:33

of your life , making a different

19:36

life decision , and I'll show you what your life looks

19:38

like . I'm like awesome . I

19:40

know exactly where I wanted to go . I

19:42

wanted to go to 2007 , when I left

19:44

my father's business , and so I said take me

19:46

back there and my different

19:48

life decision is I stay working at Merrill Lynch . He

19:51

said okay and he showed me . It was like I

19:53

don't know what the movie is . There's some

19:56

movie where some guys able to do this a

19:58

Wonderful life , or I don't

20:00

know what it is right . But

20:02

this is what was happening in my dream . So I go back

20:04

to 2007 and he shows

20:06

me my life . I only have three

20:08

kids . In this instance , I have four kids , but

20:10

I only have three in this timeline

20:13

, or whatever you want to call it . I

20:15

stay married to my wife . I'm

20:18

very successful at Merrill Lynch , I'm a multi-millionaire

20:20

. I become a bishop , a stake

20:23

president , mission president , a

20:25

general authority . My life's amazing . And

20:28

I'm going oh , this looks pretty good . I think I'm

20:30

gonna go ahead and accept this . And he says well

20:32

, don't you want to see what your children's

20:34

life look like ? I said oh , yeah , yeah , what about my children ? He's

20:37

like well , you only have three and my

20:39

children's life's all three of them turned out horribly

20:41

. They were addicted to

20:44

a variety of things just horrible

20:46

. And I'm like , oh well , I don't want

20:48

to do that . Well , my life's amazing . Their life

20:50

isn't . I don't want that . He said okay

20:52

, well , what's option number two ? I said option number

20:54

two let's go to 2011 . This

20:56

is when I started making mistakes in my business

20:58

, not being totally honest , not being totally upfront

21:01

. What does it look like

21:03

if I'm totally straight up and I just do things

21:05

the right way ? He said I'll show you . And this

21:07

instance I divorced my wife , I marry

21:09

somebody else , I

21:11

go on to be one of the Forbes 400 richest

21:13

men in the world and

21:16

you know , from a worldly

21:19

standpoint , I have everything that the world

21:21

can offer . I said , okay

21:23

, this , still , this looks pretty good . What

21:26

about my kids ? He said okay , you only have three . You

21:28

have no relationship with them , they have no relationship

21:30

with you , they don't want a relationship

21:33

with you and you don't really care to have a relationship with them

21:35

. I said , well , what about my relationship with God

21:37

? He said you don't have a relationship with God

21:39

. You're so into yourself , you

21:42

have no place for God . So

21:44

I'm like , okay , well , I don't want to do that either

21:46

. So I'm down to my last one and

21:48

I remember in my dream , kind of pausing , thinking

21:51

about all the different times in my life I could possibly

21:53

go to , and the thought came to

21:55

my head and I asked what

21:57

does it look like if I stay right here ? And

22:00

he said , shane , I'm so glad you asked , you're

22:02

going to be here for five years . During

22:04

the next five years , you're going to help so many people

22:07

that struggle struggle with addiction or

22:09

that are simply they struggle

22:11

with confidence , and you're going to be there to lift

22:13

them up and you're going to teach them the restored

22:15

gospel of Jesus Christ . But

22:17

the person you help the most is yourself , and

22:20

the relationship you develop with Christ is

22:22

amazing . He said after

22:25

the five years , you get out , you

22:27

find love again and you find your soulmate

22:29

and you become successful

22:31

. And at this moment in time showed

22:33

me exactly what my purpose was

22:35

here on this earth . And I said okay , what about

22:37

my kids ? In this instance , I have

22:39

all four of my kids and they all

22:41

turn out incredible . And I asked the guy

22:44

in the dream . I said why is it , in this

22:46

instance , with me going away for five years , why

22:48

do my kids turn out so well ? And

22:50

he said because they've been through some adversity , they're

22:52

battle tested and this adversity is

22:55

for them , even though it was hard . So

22:57

I woke up from that dream . I

22:59

accepted a plea deal , told my attorney

23:01

. My attorney's like , hey , I think you can beat this . I said no

23:04

, I did the wrong thing , knowing

23:06

in my head I needed to be there for five years . I

23:08

accepted a plea deal . The judge sentenced

23:11

me to a four to 30 . What that means

23:13

is a minimum of four years , maximum of 30

23:15

years in prison , and

23:18

so utah is indeterminate sentencing

23:20

. What that means is it's up to a

23:22

board of pardons to determine how

23:24

long you're going to be in there in between four

23:26

and 30 years . So

23:29

I went to see the board of pardons for the first time

23:31

in December of 2016 . I

23:34

had been um incarcerated

23:36

for 18 months at that time and

23:38

they gave me what's called a rehearing for April of 2020

23:40

. I got arrested in April of 2015

23:43

, and April of

23:45

2020 is when I would see them again exactly

23:47

five years to the date , and when I saw them in 2020

23:49

. They

23:52

released me . I remember getting

23:54

that news and just kind of dropping to my knees and

23:57

and just telling the lord listen , I'm an instrument

23:59

in your hands , I'm here to do your work , whatever you want me to do . But

24:04

during those five years , I got a degree in psychology

24:06

from California coast university . I read 20 to

24:09

25 books a month while I was in there . I

24:13

would tell you that the scriptures opened up

24:15

to me , that I understand the words of Isaiah . In

24:18

my mind , isaiah seems to be

24:20

the easiest , most simple book of scripture

24:22

for me to understand . Wow

24:24

, it never . It never was prior

24:27

to that and I don't think it's anything special with me

24:29

, but it was special

24:31

with the circumstances I was in , where

24:33

it was quiet in there , I

24:36

didn't have to worry about how I was going to go make money . I didn't

24:38

even have to worry about what I was going to eat

24:40

. I just , I just knew when I was going to

24:42

eat , um , and

24:44

and when you're in that place in that state of humility

24:47

, um , the , the

24:49

scriptures just really opened up to me , and so

24:51

I I really appreciated

24:53

that time that I had Um

24:55

. So when I got out , um , I

24:58

was all excited I'd written this book and

25:00

I thought I needed to go and and

25:03

uh , get this book going . So I was

25:05

talking to some big publishers and they offered me

25:07

some really big deals . Uh , but I have learned

25:09

at this point to not do anything

25:11

big without consulting with the lord . Um

25:14

, I tried doing things without consulting

25:16

the lord and it didn't go so hot for me . In

25:18

fact , it it sent me to prison . So I

25:20

went to the lord and said , hey , should I take

25:23

this deal with this big publisher ? And the answer

25:25

was no . Uh , wait till 2023

25:27

and I'll let you know what to do , but in

25:29

the meantime , go ahead and start , start a business

25:32

and reconnect with your kids and Um

25:34

, two weeks later , as we mentioned earlier , um

25:36

, I met the love of my life and

25:39

um , we went on a date

25:41

and after the first date and

25:43

really the first kiss , we both knew that , um

25:46

, this was meant to happen and

25:48

so we were married , you know , a

25:50

few months later and um , the

25:53

rest isn't history . It's it's becoming

25:55

history . But I'm I'm super happy . I

25:58

started a business and

26:00

um , you know , that's kind of my story

26:02

. So I know that's that's a lot . Uh

26:05

, it's a lot of information on you guys , but yeah

26:07

, that's . That's a little bit of my story . Um

26:09

, what's also interesting Um

26:11

, I did not get excommunicated

26:13

. Um , really so

26:16

normally when you go have

26:19

a felony , um , the handbook would say

26:21

you would get excommunicated

26:24

, and I didn't . And

26:26

when I got out , I had several meetings with my stake

26:29

president . Um , that resulted

26:31

in me , while on parole , able

26:33

to even get a temple recommend

26:36

, and so that was also very a

26:38

unique circumstance and another blessing

26:40

. While while I lost everything else

26:42

, all my money and and you

26:44

know , my , my first wife and

26:47

my freedom , the one thing that I had

26:49

the whole time in there was my , my membership

26:51

In the church of jesus christ of latterday

26:53

saints , and and I think the lord really

26:56

does know , you know kind of what we

26:58

can take and um

27:00

, not losing that but was

27:02

Was important .

27:05

Wow . So let me ask you real

27:07

quick I , whenever

27:09

I think about prison , obviously

27:12

like I think Big and tough and

27:14

scary and everybody wants to beat everybody

27:16

up , and you know , like I have no idea

27:18

the reality of it , but did

27:20

you have any fear going into

27:22

Into prison not

27:24

knowing how long you were actually going to be there , other than

27:27

your dream that you know , that you believed that

27:29

you were going to have five years , but you didn't truly

27:31

, truly know until Until

27:33

you were released , right . So like you're like , yeah , I

27:35

, I mean , hopefully it's just five years , but

27:38

tons of fear in fact .

27:41

Yeah , even knowing

27:44

everything , even having that dream

27:46

that I felt like was from God , we

27:48

still , even for me , I didn't trust

27:51

it , you know , and I was afraid

27:53

. Yeah , I mean , I was nervous

27:55

going in there , but I

27:57

knew I was in the hands of the Lord . I

28:00

knew that there were people in

28:02

there that I needed to teach the gospel

28:04

to , that I needed to share the Book of Mormon with

28:06

, and that if I treated it like

28:08

I was on a mission and

28:11

this is what the Lord had called me to do

28:13

, I was also confident

28:15

that he would protect me . And that's certainly

28:18

what happened . I never had any problems

28:20

with anybody in there . In fact , those who were

28:23

the hardest core gangbangers

28:25

and the scariest

28:27

guys were some of my best friends

28:29

in there , and they were some of the people that

28:31

I ended up teaching and were also

28:33

the most receptive to

28:36

the message of the restored gospel . So

28:38

I felt like I told a young

28:41

man today that just came home from his mission . I

28:43

said , yeah , I've served two missions . I served one

28:45

when I was a young man . Then I served a five-year mission . He says

28:47

what kind of mission is that ? And I said

28:49

I've served five years in

28:51

the Utah State Prison , but I

28:53

treated it like it was a

28:56

mission and the Lord had called me to

28:59

the prison . And I think it's interesting

29:01

when we think about where Jesus

29:04

left . I think it says in Peter or something

29:06

that he went and visited the spirits in

29:08

prison . So I just said , yeah , I was

29:10

doing what Jesus did , only

29:13

not the spirits , the physical

29:15

prison .

29:16

Well , and even Jesus was arrested , right . Like we've

29:18

got tons of different prophets and scripture

29:21

heroes that did go to prison too . So

29:27

you're kind of among the best of

29:29

the best there , right . I'm

29:32

just saying I mean , if you look at it , you know what I mean Like

29:35

Joseph Smith was in prison when he passed away , and

29:37

so you know I can see

29:39

how . You

29:41

know , from a world's perspective you

29:43

can think that's the worst thing ever to have happened

29:45

. But I love that you

29:48

let it be a mission . You

29:50

know that you were able to change that mindset

29:52

and stuff and it didn't mean that you were going

29:54

in all happy go lucky right away

29:57

. Like it took you some time , like you were saying

29:59

, even your suicide attempt , which

30:01

is a very , very serious thing , and

30:04

you know like it

30:06

took a lot of getting

30:08

down to the bottom before you could

30:10

start working your way back up to the top

30:13

, right . So did you ever feel

30:15

like , while you were in there , did you ever

30:17

feel like you had added protection given

30:19

to you ?

30:21

Yeah , I did , and you know

30:23

, again , the scriptures are

30:26

such a powerful thing I think it's

30:28

2 Nephi , chapter

30:30

2 , verse 2 , and

30:32

he talks about consecrating

30:35

thine afflictions . And

30:37

I remembered reading that in

30:39

the middle of my own affliction and

30:41

saying , hey , if the Lord consecrated

30:44

that affliction for this person in

30:46

the Book of Mormon , he can certainly consecrate

30:48

mine , and what that means is I'll

30:51

be protected , I'll be safe , and

30:54

I just totally bought into that and

30:58

because of that , I feel like I was

31:00

directed to the right people to

31:02

share the right message . But at the same

31:04

time , you know , prison

31:06

was a great teacher for me . I

31:09

was able to learn some things

31:11

. I was able to connect

31:14

with people that I would have otherwise never been

31:16

able to connect with . I'm able to empathize

31:19

with people who suffer from addiction

31:22

because I was able to spend time

31:24

with them and understand what they were dealing

31:26

with . And so I have this

31:28

, this deeper love for

31:31

my fellow man . Because

31:34

of the time in there , I think

31:36

I developed greater empathy

31:38

. I remember thinking

31:41

in there how am I going to attack this

31:43

when I get out of prison ? Like

31:45

how am I going to explain to people , because people are

31:47

going to Google me ? And I

31:49

decided that the best thing I could do is

31:52

just be transparent and authentic

31:54

. In my book . I have a quote

31:56

in there that says transparency is a superpower

31:58

, and I really

32:01

feel like if we'll just own our experience

32:03

, all of it , the good and the bad , and

32:05

we just own it and we're authentic about it

32:07

, people can feel that . And

32:10

then , more importantly for me , it was like

32:12

I now understood the

32:14

atonement in only a way when

32:16

you commit the kind of sins that I committed , that

32:19

you can understand . And so

32:22

the atonement has had such a huge impact

32:24

in my life because I , more

32:26

than most people , because of my

32:29

sinful nature , had to

32:31

utilize the atonement , and

32:33

so , to some degree , prison

32:35

became that sanctification

32:38

type experience for

32:40

me and it was just , it was

32:42

transformative .

32:44

Wow , oh man

32:46

, that's awesome .

32:49

Can you share any

32:51

stories that you might have

32:53

had in prison where you shared

32:55

the gospel with somebody ?

32:58

Yeah , I'll give you one . There

33:00

was a guy they

33:02

call him TK . He was

33:05

a shot caller for one

33:07

of the gangs and he

33:10

looks scary . In fact if you look at

33:12

him , his name is Jared Charles Lance . He's actually

33:14

back in prison right

33:17

now . I mean , he's a scary guy . And

33:20

for three days this guy's eyeballing me

33:23

and I'm thinking he wants to fight me . And

33:25

eventually he approaches me and

33:28

he says I have been told

33:30

that you know where my dad is

33:32

and you know how I can

33:34

be with him . And I'm like

33:37

has your dad passed on ? And he

33:39

said yes , I

33:41

said I said I can share

33:43

with you what I know . Who told you that

33:45

? And he said God did . And I said

33:48

okay . So we sat down and

33:50

I began teaching him the plan of salvation

33:52

and I gave him the

33:54

Book of Mormon and he just

33:57

gobbled it up . He just

33:59

loved the Book of Mormon , loved

34:02

everything about it , loved the

34:04

war stories and really

34:08

bought in at that time

34:10

with me to the restored gospel

34:12

. That was one experience I'm going to share with you

34:14

. Another one , and this one's

34:16

kind of like super near and dear

34:19

to me I

34:21

was in there with a guy and he

34:23

was in the bunk next to me and he became

34:25

one of my best friends . But

34:28

in 2008 , he's a returned missionary . He's

34:30

a member of the church . He found out his

34:32

wife was cheating on him and

34:34

in a church parking lot he

34:36

shot her 13 times .

34:38

I don't know if you're a historian in 2008

34:41

.

34:42

And I was in the bunk next to this

34:44

man and this man

34:46

felt like God doesn't

34:48

love him , that

34:51

what he had done , there is no chance

34:53

for repentance to even happen . And

34:56

he had completely lost his faith

34:58

. And I started

35:00

to become friends with him and

35:03

we got talking a lot

35:05

. At the time when he committed his crime

35:07

, he had two kids , two years

35:09

old and four years old . He had not

35:11

had hardly any contact with his

35:14

two sons and I just

35:16

I call them rags . I said rags

35:18

, I promise you , if you draw

35:20

near to the Lord , if you reconnect

35:22

number one , I'm confident the atonement

35:25

can work for you , just like it can

35:27

work for me and anybody else . No matter what you've

35:29

done , I'm confident the atonement works . Get

35:33

back into the Book of Mormon . Come to church

35:35

with me . And we

35:37

started this journey together . About

35:40

a year into the journey , he said I really want

35:42

to see my kids . I said what does that look like to

35:44

you ? And he explained in his

35:46

mind what it would look like for him to reconnect

35:48

with his kids . And so

35:51

we built up this meditation where

35:53

he would envision just before bed what

35:55

it would be like to be meeting with his sons

35:57

and reconnecting with his sons and I

35:59

said I promise you , if you will continue

36:01

on this path , that you're on reading

36:04

the Book of Mormon daily , praying

36:07

, connecting to God , connecting to the

36:09

Savior and doing this meditation

36:11

. Eventually I don't know when

36:13

, I don't know how long it's going to take , but eventually

36:15

you'll have that connection with

36:17

your children . So

36:20

I got out and I had

36:22

the opportunity to connect

36:24

with his

36:27

ex-mother-in-law , who was raising

36:29

his two boys , and I was able to

36:31

share with her how

36:33

rags had changed . And

36:36

then I connected with his sons . His

36:40

sons started writing letters to their dad

36:42

and about two

36:44

weeks ago he was able to

36:46

see his sons for the very first

36:48

time . His two sons

36:50

, his 16-year-old son , his 18-year-old son went

36:53

and visited him in the prison . Rags

36:56

calls me every Sunday and

36:58

he's just so happy

37:01

. He's so happy and he's seen

37:03

the atonement work . Even for him , he's

37:06

had this experience connecting

37:08

with his kids . He said

37:10

, shane , it was the greatest day of my life and

37:14

to have some involvement in that , to have the Lord

37:16

put me there at that time , to

37:18

be around rags and then see that

37:20

come full circle . It was a five-year

37:22

process . We started this process in 2018

37:25

, and in 2023 , he finally connects with

37:27

his two sons , and

37:31

he is just so committed to the gospel

37:33

of Jesus Christ while he's in there Feels

37:36

as though you know at this point

37:38

that he has received forgiveness

37:40

and he feels good about who he is . So

37:43

he has confidence again , and

37:45

so that was just another incredible

37:47

story that continues

37:49

moving forward .

37:52

Oh my gosh , that

37:54

is just oh Like

37:56

. For one , I don't know

37:58

how I would have responded to having

38:00

a roommate that was , you know , that was a

38:02

murderer , let alone to befriend

38:05

someone who had done that . You

38:07

know and it's funny because I know

38:09

I was actually just thinking about this today we

38:11

had our state conference and for some reason

38:13

, my mind was just going into this whole I

38:15

don't know rabbit hole of things that

38:17

I was thinking about how we are one

38:19

decision away from our best selves

38:22

and our worst selves . You know , like

38:24

there , like to be so confident

38:26

, is to say , oh , I'll never do that or I'll

38:28

, you know , I'll always do this . I just

38:31

think it's so arrogant , you know , like we really

38:33

don't know what the thing is that's going

38:35

to break us and it's going

38:37

to send us down a fork in the road for either

38:39

good or bad , you know , and so I was

38:41

thinking about that . But for

38:43

you to be able to befriend someone

38:46

and to have such a close relationship

38:48

and to open up about the gospel and to have that confidence

38:50

because that is a huge thing to

38:53

say that the atonement , you know , can

38:55

cover even that , and we know it can . We know that

38:57

the atonement can cover everything right

39:00

, like even the worst imaginable crimes

39:02

and and and choices

39:04

and everything like that , but for you to

39:06

be able to one , be

39:08

inspired and to be willing to follow

39:11

that inspiration , that

39:13

is . It's

39:15

just mind blowing to me . It really really is

39:17

mind blowing to me .

39:18

We're not we're not put in positions like that

39:20

, where we know that's true , but

39:22

we're most people don't ever

39:24

have that situation where

39:26

we're talking to someone that's done something

39:29

.

39:29

I mean , we have a hard time believing the atonement

39:32

is going to work on someone who's like a different political

39:34

party than us , right , like , like that's

39:36

? That's where the the average person is

39:38

at . They're like oh well , they believe this other thing

39:41

and so there's no way that the atonement is going to work for them . But

39:43

I mean , just what an , what an

39:46

amazingly beautiful experience that

39:48

you were able to have being

39:51

surrounded with the

39:54

people who definitely are in need of

39:56

the atonement . Thank you on

39:58

such a huge scale , you know .

40:00

It was such a beautiful experience to

40:02

see so many people work

40:05

through their own process

40:08

of the Atonement . I

40:10

saw some incredible miracles even

40:12

just in , with

40:15

what they did inside of the church

40:17

. As we would attend church weekly

40:20

there and I was bringing

40:22

people along with me to church , it really

40:24

did feel like a mission to me

40:26

. While I was in there , I grew out

40:28

a longer beard and I had longer hair

40:31

and I tried to

40:33

emulate Christ in

40:35

every single way , even in my appearance

40:37

, and I really focused

40:40

on that . One of the things that I'm

40:42

doing now I think

40:44

it's in Doctrine and Covenants that talks about

40:46

practicing virtues , and

40:50

so I'm like okay , how do you practice

40:52

virtues ? And there's a talk I

40:55

guess not a talk , it's in the Liahona . It just came

40:57

out by an Emeritus 70

40:59

, Lynn G Robbins . I have it

41:01

on the floor . It says practice virtue continually

41:03

. And it was a great article

41:06

to kind of teach me how I

41:09

can continue to practice the

41:12

things that I learned in prison outside of prison

41:14

, and practice virtue . So I

41:17

picked a virtue . Here's my plan I'm gonna

41:19

, once a month , I'm gonna pick a virtue and

41:21

I'm gonna practice that virtue and I'm

41:23

gonna study that virtue and I'm gonna try every

41:25

day to really live by that virtue

41:27

. So the virtue that I'm practicing right now is

41:30

meekness , and I've learned some really cool

41:32

things about meekness . I think when we hear

41:34

the word meek we hear the word

41:36

weak , and that's not what meekness

41:39

means at all . In fact , the Greek

41:41

for meek is prowse , and

41:44

prowse means strength

41:46

under control . So to

41:48

be meek means that you have

41:50

immense power , like the

41:52

Savior clearly had immense power and

41:56

during when they were whipping him and

41:58

beating him and doing

42:00

everything that they did to him , kneeling him

42:02

to the cross at any moment in time , he

42:04

could have just said to any one

42:06

of those guys you're dead , or he could have

42:08

stopped anything , but

42:10

it was his meekness that he controlled

42:12

that strength . And

42:16

so I'm really working on how do I

42:18

make sure and control my strength

42:20

, and that's really what meekness

42:23

is . So I'm gonna practice these virtues

42:25

. I'm gonna pick one once a month and

42:27

try to do my best to practice virtues

42:29

, one of the things that I've

42:31

really tried to do as well

42:33

. Like I have this perspective

42:35

now because of prison . I

42:37

call it my prison perspective

42:40

and I'm grateful for

42:42

the simple things , for the little

42:44

things , for the little freedoms that

42:46

I have , and I try not to complain

42:49

about things that I should

42:51

not be complaining about . So

42:54

I try to maintain what I call prison

42:56

perspective every single day .

42:58

Wow , I love that and

43:01

I can identify with that in my own

43:03

little way , like when I was diagnosed

43:05

with leukemia years ago , and there's

43:08

a shift that when you have some big

43:10

, huge , hard obstacle that comes

43:13

into your life , there's an opportunity there

43:15

to have that shift in perspective and

43:17

I think that when someone really gets it , it

43:19

just doesn't go away , it

43:23

sticks with you and really

43:25

can just edify your life in

43:27

such a grand way moving

43:30

forward . So I love that you have that

43:32

your own little prison perspective . I

43:35

think if we all take a minute , we can look

43:37

back and we can see , even if we didn't do something as big

43:39

as go to prison or get diagnosed

43:41

with leukemia or lose

43:44

a loved one or get a divorce , even

43:46

if it's not something really big , I think we can find

43:49

those places in our life where

43:51

we can remember that

43:53

we were low , remember that we were hurting

43:56

, that we were alone , that we were confused

43:58

, whatever it is , and we can kind of think about that perspective

44:00

that we really wanna have and we can keep going

44:03

back to that . So I love what

44:05

in the intro here we mentioned that

44:07

you had this gratitude in suffering

44:10

and I just I

44:12

wanna ask you how do you maintain

44:14

that gratitude , like , do you have any

44:17

daily routines or

44:20

is it a certain way that you pray ? Is

44:23

it just constantly thinking about that perspective

44:26

, like , how do you continue to be grateful

44:28

for the things that you have ?

44:30

That's a great question , Alisha . So I

44:32

do something every

44:35

single day . I try and think of three

44:37

things or three people that I'm

44:39

super grateful for and something I'm grateful

44:41

about , and once

44:44

I've identified those three

44:46

people , I send them a text or

44:48

I shoot them a call letting

44:50

them know how grateful I am . So that's

44:52

three different people , and it can

44:54

be the same person it could be my wife every day of the

44:56

week , but I'm trying

44:59

to show gratitude and

45:02

think about that and then feel it Like

45:04

as I'm thinking about it and I'll usually do it on

45:06

my drive to the gym , when I call

45:08

it my gratitude moment , where I go

45:10

through , okay , what am I grateful for and what's going on in my

45:13

life . But I think

45:15

, for those of you out

45:17

there who know the book the Secret , I

45:19

think the Secret to the Secret

45:21

is gratitude in suffering

45:24

. It's being grateful

45:26

when things are not going

45:28

your way , and we will

45:30

all experience things in life , some

45:32

more than others , where things aren't

45:34

gonna go your way . And

45:37

for me , what I did is I sat

45:39

down when things

45:41

weren't going my way and I said

45:44

to myself what are the things

45:46

I can be grateful for while I'm here

45:48

in prison ? And I just listed them out . And

45:50

then I started finding things that I could do

45:52

to express that gratitude

45:55

, and it changed my whole experience

45:57

. And I also

46:00

found , if we're in a hole , the

46:02

fastest way to get yourself out of a hole

46:04

is to help somebody out of theirs . So

46:07

, instead of focusing on my problems

46:09

and my issues , I started

46:11

learning what other people's problems were

46:13

and what the issues they had and

46:16

started realizing oh wow , like

46:18

mine aren't as bad as theirs are

46:20

. How can I help them now ? And the more I

46:22

helped other people out , the more it helped

46:24

me out .

46:26

Wow , so almost like service

46:28

is like the antidote

46:30

for suffering , right ?

46:32

Yes , yes , service is key

46:35

and it's simple things . I think when we

46:37

think of service , we think we gotta do these big

46:39

, grandiose service projects , and

46:42

it really isn't that . It's holding a door open

46:44

, it's smiling

46:47

and saying hi to some random stranger

46:49

in the grocery store . These

46:51

are simple acts of service that we

46:53

can do every single day that

46:55

can not only change somebody else's day but

46:58

can change ours .

47:00

I love that Interesting . So

47:03

, oh sorry , go ahead Scott .

47:07

Okay , so I'm just thinking about

47:09

your life and the perspective that

47:11

you've had . I mean , you've had times in

47:13

your life when you had everything right

47:15

Planes , houses , money and

47:18

then you've had time when you had nothing right

47:21

and you were locked in a cell

47:23

. Now that

47:25

you've gone through all of these things

47:27

, how do you view life

47:29

? How do you view , I guess

47:31

? How do you view money ? How do you view freedom and

47:37

what do you see the future of your life

47:39

looking like going

47:41

through these things , scott

47:43

, you're asking some really big questions .

47:46

Well , the way I view money now is

47:49

as a tool . I

47:51

found more joy , more happiness

47:53

giving away money

47:55

than I ever found making money . And

47:58

, as I look

48:00

at my freedom

48:02

, what I choose to do

48:04

with my freedom now is every day

48:06

I'm focused on how can

48:08

I lift somebody else up , how can I

48:11

make somebody feel like they're a million bucks

48:13

, like what are the things I can do or

48:15

what are the things I can say , and I'm praying

48:17

for those opportunities daily . Now

48:19

I have a quote and my quote goes like this If

48:22

you have a desire to change the world , which

48:25

I do then you have to change America

48:27

, because at the end of the day

48:29

, america changes the world . So

48:32

I am planning

48:34

in the near future

48:36

to launch a

48:39

run in politics . I'm

48:42

not super excited about some of the things

48:44

that are going on in politics and

48:47

I can either sit on the sidelines

48:49

and complain about what's going on or

48:51

I can get involved , and

48:53

I've decided that I'm gonna

48:56

get involved . How that's all gonna work

48:58

, I'll let the Lord kind of coordinate

49:01

and orchestrate things , but I'm

49:03

willing and ready to do really whatever the Lord

49:05

asks at this point .

49:07

Wow , that's awesome . I

49:09

can see Shane for president . All

49:12

right , we'll just do that .

49:14

I'm gonna put that convict in there . Maybe that'll be

49:16

the trick .

49:20

Wow , that is amazing , and

49:23

I'm like seeing these

49:25

correlations with Joseph Smith . Joseph

49:28

Smith , he too . He was gonna run

49:30

for president before he was killed .

49:32

He had a whole platform . It's interesting he had a whole

49:34

platform on prison

49:37

reform , of all things , and

49:40

so obviously our prison system is broken

49:42

and that's one

49:44

of the things that I intend to get involved in

49:47

fixing is how and

49:50

the types of things we do

49:52

to incarcerate individuals . We

49:55

need to truly provide correction

49:57

facilities . Right now , they're just detention

50:00

facilities .

50:01

Right , yeah , I can see how

50:03

I believe Doctrine and Covenants .

50:06

It talks about the difference between punishment

50:08

and what's

50:11

the other word that they use for it . There's

50:13

a difference between discipline and punishment . Punishment

50:17

typically is not

50:19

initiated

50:21

through love . It's not done with love . It's

50:24

like a very hard , vindictive

50:26

, cold type

50:28

of thing . But

50:31

discipline having to discipline

50:34

someone or reprimand them that

50:36

should be done with an increase of love . So

50:40

I love that . That's the target of yours

50:42

. I know we had Portia

50:44

Lauder on and she too

50:46

.

50:46

I've heard her . She's awesome , by the way , she's amazing

50:49

.

50:49

Yeah , she says the same thing

50:51

, like she ended up going to prison for I think it was five

50:53

years as well as a matter of fact and

50:56

yeah , she just she

50:59

sees the need , but she loves that

51:02

there are so many people who are willing to change

51:04

in prison . You know , like she

51:06

makes this part of her

51:09

platform is to go out and to speak to those

51:11

who are still

51:13

still

51:15

having to pay for their crimes and everything like that , and

51:17

I love the light that she's bringing . I love the light that

51:19

you're bringing . I just think it

51:21

is so beautiful , like how

51:23

unique our plan is

51:26

from our Heavenly Father for each and every one of us . You

51:28

know , like that's your call , that's

51:30

not my call , but we both

51:33

can bring light to the world . We both

51:35

can use our talents , we can

51:37

use our experiences . I

51:39

really love what you said about being

51:41

transparent , because

51:44

I think that sometimes , when you're

51:46

transparent with where you're at

51:48

, how you got there , you

51:50

know , and how much responsibility is

51:52

really on your shoulders for being in that position

51:55

, that it helps you

51:57

one to not play the blame

51:59

game right , like then , all of a sudden , you're not blaming

52:01

Heavenly Father , you're not blaming another person , you're

52:04

not blaming the world . You can just

52:06

take that on and just say , okay , well , I'm here because

52:08

of the choices that I made , even if I

52:10

didn't make every choice to get me here . I made enough

52:12

of the choices that this is where I'm at

52:15

and this is what I'm struggling with . But now I also

52:17

have the opportunity to make a choice to move forward

52:19

from here . You know , and I just I love

52:21

that you were able to gain

52:23

that insight

52:26

of being transparent .

52:28

So Well , thank you .

52:30

Oh yeah , man

52:33

. So let me ask you real quick before

52:35

we go , because you said you read 25

52:38

to 30 books a month when you were in prison

52:40

. If you had to recommend

52:43

, I'm gonna say your top

52:45

three favorite books that you just feel

52:47

like anybody and everybody should

52:49

read , aside from the scriptures , because we know that

52:51

that's Guys . We just need to

52:53

read the scriptures . But what else could we

52:55

read ? What do you think are like your tie

52:57

hey ?

52:59

I got . I got the greatest

53:01

book that nobody knows about

53:03

. I'm gonna pull it out . I haven't seen okay , right

53:05

here . So here's the book

53:08

and see , it says in tune with the infinite

53:10

. It was written in 1898

53:12

by Ralph Waldo trine . It's the

53:14

greatest book that nobody knows

53:17

about . I have not met a single human

53:19

. That's like oh yeah , I know that book , I read

53:21

that book . So that's number one . When

53:23

you read that book you will understand how

53:26

true our doctrines are , because this guy's

53:28

not a member of our church , but he's talking

53:30

about so many things . He talks

53:32

a lot about the unseen world and

53:35

what we call the spirit world and how involved

53:37

Our ancestors are

53:39

in our lives . So that that's

53:41

one book . Number two Og

53:44

mandino wrote a book called the greatest salesman

53:46

in the world , but I'm gonna tell you that that's not his greatest

53:48

work . His greatest work is called the greatest

53:51

miracle in the world , and so you should

53:53

definitely , definitely , definitely Check

53:55

out the greatest miracle in the world

53:57

. And then the third one is the

53:59

John Adams biography . Now here's

54:01

why it's not necessarily about

54:04

the American history , while you'll get a lot of that . It's

54:06

an amazing love story between him

54:08

and his dear wife Abigail , and their

54:10

correspondence when he's away

54:12

from her . Like brought me to

54:15

tears , and . And so those are three

54:17

Books to

54:19

him and the self help . One of them's historical

54:21

that I would say definitely Check

54:23

it out . You can find in tune with the

54:26

infinite . You can listen to it for free on YouTube

54:28

. It is one of the most powerful books

54:30

I've ever read .

54:31

Okay , thank you for that . And then

54:33

, what about your book ? So if someone wants to get ahold

54:35

of your book , or is it just you have one

54:38

book out , or do you have multiple ?

54:39

Yeah , I just have one book out . It's called the honest lie

54:41

how to navigate the matrix . It's

54:44

on Amazon . So you

54:46

just if you just Google the

54:49

honest lie , you'll find it , but it's

54:51

on Amazon . The audiobook comes out

54:53

in about a month . I'm recording

54:55

the audiobook and I had no idea

54:57

, so I'm doing it myself . I

55:00

thought it would take me to studio sessions

55:03

four hours piece . I'd knock it out . I'm

55:05

only halfway through . Way

55:07

harder than I thought .

55:10

Yeah , it is . It is Like

55:12

I had . I've been practicing because my

55:15

, you know , once I get mine out there , same

55:17

thing . And I'm just like huh , I might just

55:19

hire someone to do it for me because it's

55:21

so hard . It is so hard to

55:23

just read , perfectly , but wow

55:25

, awesome . Well , we'll definitely add

55:27

a link to your book in the

55:29

description so if anyone wants to just

55:32

quickly be able to find that , they can go

55:34

ahead and they can click on that . Do

55:36

you have a website or anything else ? If people want to know more

55:38

, or if they want to get in contact with you

55:40

and have you Maybe on their own podcast or

55:42

I don't know if you fire sides

55:44

or any of that kind of stuff .

55:46

Yeah , the best way to get in contact with me is

55:48

through Instagram . It's just Shane

55:50

Baldwin . You'll see me on there , got

55:54

a lot of followers . That's kind of the main platform social

55:56

media platform that I use . So

55:58

, yeah , instagram , find me on Instagram , dm

56:00

me . I respond to every

56:02

DM and every message

56:04

within 24 hours . So , wow

56:06

, wow , that is dedication .

56:08

I Respond

56:10

within a week or two . If someone texts me , I'm like oh

56:13

yeah , I remember .

56:16

Oh man . Well , Shane , do you have any

56:18

last thoughts you'd like to share

56:20

?

56:22

No , I really appreciate being

56:24

able to come on your show and and

56:27

and talk to you

56:29

, know our fellow brothers and sisters out there and

56:31

and I guess I'll leave you with this

56:33

there's so many people that I've

56:36

talked to that are having what

56:38

we've now termed as a faith crisis . And

56:40

I'll have people reach out to me that are

56:42

struggling with their faith , and , and

56:45

my advice is this get off

56:47

the internet , open the Book

56:49

of Mormon , read the Book of Mormon

56:51

daily for 30 days straight , 15

56:54

minutes a day , and at the end of

56:56

those 30 days , my

56:59

guess is you won't have a faith crisis anymore . And

57:02

so the Book of Mormon is

57:04

. It's a magical book , and

57:07

if we will take the time to

57:09

read it , it can have

57:11

a powerful impact on our life and , can

57:13

you know , draw us closer to Jesus Christ , which

57:15

is the goal . So that's

57:18

what I would tell people to do that might be struggling

57:20

is go back , go to the Book of Mormon

57:22

. The answers are there .

57:23

I Love that great

57:25

advice . Yeah , wonderful , best

57:27

way to wrap this up . Oh Well

57:30

, shane , you are fantastic . We are so

57:33

happy that you're able to come on here and share

57:35

your story and share your light with us and with everybody

57:37

who's listening today and who's watching . We

57:39

really , really Sincerely

57:41

wish you the very best in all

57:43

of your endeavors . We're gonna

57:45

give you an open invitation . You can come back anytime

57:48

, share other stories that you have with

57:50

us . We would absolutely love that , and

57:53

we just want to thank our listeners as

57:55

well . Guys , you , you guys

57:57

have definitely Been

57:59

a big part of Scott and I's life this

58:02

last year and a half you know almost almost

58:04

two years . We're coming up our you know two

58:07

years . This just a few months away

58:09

. So we really appreciate you

58:11

guys , we appreciate all of your comments and

58:13

we appreciate when you guys write into us . If you guys

58:15

have a story that you would like to share , if you'd like to be

58:17

a Guest on the podcast or you know someone who would

58:19

be great , please be sure to go to Latter-day

58:22

Lights dot com and you can fill out the contact

58:24

information at the bottom of the page . We'll get that

58:26

. That one we will respond to very quickly

58:28

. I'm very good at responding

58:30

to those emails within a day

58:32

. So we would absolutely love to hear

58:34

from you guys . So don't , don't forget

58:36

to reach out to us and definitely

58:39

share Shane's story

58:41

. So many good nuggets

58:43

in it . You know it was such

58:45

a good , not just story , but like

58:48

there's so much good advice and perspective and

58:50

book recommendations and so make sure

58:52

you guys do that five-second missionary work and

58:54

click that share button and then comment and let us know

58:56

what your favorite part of Shane's

58:58

story was .

59:01

Thanks , guys so much . You

59:03

bet Scott is very inspirational

59:06

and it one thing I love about doing

59:08

this podcast is it helps give

59:11

me perspective on my own life , and

59:14

I think that it does that for other people that

59:17

watch it or listen to it as well . So definitely

59:20

appreciate your perspective , your insight

59:22

, your experiences . I mean those

59:24

are now part of me and

59:26

Hopefully I'll use them for good .

59:29

Awesome , awesome . Alisha Scott , thanks

59:31

for having me on . I really appreciate it .

59:33

Thanks so much , shane . We appreciate it . All

59:37

right , guys . Well , that's all we have

59:39

for you today . If you , like

59:41

I said , would like to go ahead and share Shane's

59:44

story , we would greatly appreciate

59:46

it , and be sure to

59:48

tune in next week for another episode

59:50

of Latter-day Lights . Until then , we hope you guys

59:53

have a wonderful week , keep the spirit with you and don't

59:55

forget to think celestial . We'll

59:57

see you guys later , yeah

59:59

bye-bye , bye you

1:00:10

.