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CrossFitMephobia . Well

9:55

, hey guys , thanks for tuning in to the Straight Out of Prison

9:58

Podcast . My name is James K Jones

10:00

and this is the best of season

10:02

three .

10:03

And this is Hailey Jones , and you've

10:05

thrown me off because usually you say this

10:08

is . James . K Jones and this is my story

10:10

. And then I say and this is

10:12

Hailey Jones and this is his

10:14

story , that has now become a part of my story

10:16

.

10:17

I think , if people were up this season three

10:19

, they pretty much got that down .

10:21

They got that on , I know , but you threw me off

10:23

of my of my rhythm , so

10:26

okay . But yes , like you said

10:28

, this is the best of season three Coming

10:30

at you . It's gonna be really good . I've

10:33

been loving the number one and two

10:35

.

10:36

Yeah , espen , this has been really fun . I like it , but

10:38

this , uh , this will be the last

10:40

week that we do the best of , because we don't have

10:42

any more seasons Plus , season four

10:44

is premiering September the 7th .

10:46

Drumroll , please yes , september

10:48

the 7th Like you said September

10:50

7th , season four . We

10:52

are stoked about it . We'll

10:55

see you soon . Bye , season

10:58

three . We made it . What's up

11:01

? I feel like we need to go out to dinner to celebrate

11:04

You're out of prison and free at last

11:06

, driving off .

11:07

Free at last . Thank God Almighty , I'm free at

11:09

last .

11:10

Driving away , I should say , if

11:12

you're gonna kiss the dirt of the free ground

11:15

. But you decided .

11:16

Well , ain't nobody got time for that

11:18

. I had always planned on doing that . That was always

11:20

been my plan for almost seven years , but

11:22

somehow that morning everything

11:24

was going so fast . We got to

11:26

the end of the driveway and Tommy was

11:28

like stopping and I

11:30

think he wanted to take like a picture or do something cheesy

11:33

like that and I just said

11:35

I don't want to do it . I'm good , just

11:37

get me out of here .

11:38

Keep driving , don't stop

11:41

.

11:43

Yeah , well , I was . You know there's

11:46

a lot of things I wanted to do for the first time . You

11:48

know , I wanted to call my mom and wanted to see . You know , I want

11:50

to do all the things Right , but

11:52

Brian wanted anything . Is I want to get something

11:54

to eat , because the brother

11:57

was hungry ?

11:58

So yeah , because you had talked about

12:00

how the , the food and

12:02

the I mean in the Alabama prisons

12:04

, where it was terrible , it was awful .

12:06

I mean it was . It was worse than like don't food

12:09

. It was and

12:11

I felt like a like a kid

12:13

in a candy store , like I

12:16

just couldn't , I couldn't process

12:18

like the food and it was just

12:20

. You know , I'm pretty sure I ate some

12:22

of everything that was there and

12:24

then . But when I got there was cereal and then they

12:26

had milk and then I

12:28

was so excited about it and then I looked up and Tommy

12:31

was crying .

12:32

Wait , you were so excited about the , the

12:34

milk , and how like were you ? Just

12:36

like , oh my god , milk .

12:38

Like I was just excited to see I haven't had . By

12:40

that time it's been almost four years since I had

12:42

milk . We didn't have , we didn't have milk .

12:44

What did you have ? Well , did you have cereal , I guess

12:47

.

12:47

Well , if they did cereal , they would take that powdered

12:49

milk and then they would put water in it and shake it up

12:51

. So that was , that

12:53

was the milk . We didn't have milk

12:55

. And I was excited about the milk

12:57

. And he was bawling and I was like what's the

13:00

matter ? Like you know what's the matter with you ? And he was

13:02

like I've just never seen anybody get

13:04

so excited about milk

13:06

. It was , I mean , I kind of felt

13:08

bad for him but I was just like , well , you know

13:11

, I haven't had milk . I've

13:13

spent a long time since I had milk , but

13:16

I didn't . I didn't . I didn't know how to talk

13:18

on the phone , but you know , eventually I didn't

13:20

know how to talk on the phone . Well , now , like with a

13:23

regular , like a home phone , you

13:25

can hear your there's like you can hear

13:27

yourself . And that one I couldn't , and it might have been

13:29

because we were in the car and the background noise , I don't know

13:31

. Yeah , but it was very difficult . And then

13:33

, but I finally got on the phone with my mom and you know

13:35

her tears

13:38

of joy and she's real

13:40

. You know all that stuff and it was . And

13:42

of course , you know when are you coming to see me ? You

13:45

know , like mom , you gotta give me a minute

13:47

. I gotta figure out . I got a lot to figure out , you

13:49

know . But I'm coming to see you , but you

13:51

know there's a lot I gotta

13:54

get through it . I got a lot of hoops to jump through .

13:56

It's hard to believe . I mean , our daughter just turned

13:58

seven , so to think that you were in

14:00

prison as long as she's been alive , yeah

14:02

.

14:02

It's crazy .

14:03

Is it's crazy , you know ? Think of it

14:05

from that perspective .

14:07

It feels like a very long time it was

14:09

the better part of the 90s . Yeah , I mean

14:11

, even to this day people will tell me like

14:13

a classic movie that they love . And

14:16

if it was during the 90s , I don't

14:18

know . Yeah , I don't know what that is , I didn't see that

14:20

. Then we went to Tommy's

14:23

house . He was going to show me , he was going to show me where

14:25

I was going to stay . I guess I was kind of

14:27

taken back when we pulled into

14:30

his neighborhood because it was like he

14:32

lived in Kaba Heights , which was on the outskirts

14:35

of Birmingham . Now

14:37

it's actually part of Estavia , but at that time it was just unincorporated

14:40

Jefferson County and it's behind

14:42

the summit on 280

14:45

.

14:45

Okay , it was a big shopping center area

14:47

, yeah , and just

14:50

the neighborhood like all

14:52

these big houses .

14:53

And then when we pulled up to his house I was like this is

14:55

your house , I mean

16:18

, because it looked like a mansion , like it was like

16:21

there was two stories kind

16:23

of tucked in a hill , yards

16:26

and landscaping and flowers and it was

16:28

just beautiful .

16:29

I mean you explain , you describe

16:31

all that , and I think I mean because you had

16:33

never , really you didn't grow up in

16:35

a house or neighborhood like that either , right

16:38

? No , I mean , my granny had a nice house

16:40

in a nice neighborhood . I'm just thinking

16:42

you're coming from prison , being in a prison

16:44

cell , to one of the nicest

16:47

houses you've ever been

16:49

. That , as far as I'm going to stay here , I'm going

16:51

to stay here . Yeah , it was crazy .

16:52

Yeah , I mean because this was , it

16:54

was nice , it was , it was crazy . What

16:57

a contrast . No , I felt

16:59

like little orphan , annie , like coming in there

17:01

, like hey , I'm James , where do I need to start

17:03

Clean the floors ? I'm James from prison

17:05

. The house

17:08

was intimidating

17:10

because when you walked in the front door there was like

17:12

this long whining store staircase

17:14

, you know like something out of going with the wind

17:16

, and you know , just

17:19

nice , just nice , expensive

17:21

stuff . And they

17:23

took me in and he showed me

17:25

where my room was going to be and

17:28

when he opened the door to the room , the

17:31

bed , the floor , the

17:33

dresser was flooded with

17:36

clothes , cosmetics

17:38

, underwear cosmetics

17:41

cosmetics like deodorant and shampoo

17:43

.

17:43

Oh , okay , yeah , I didn't have anything , hailey

17:45

see , hailey , I

17:47

guess I just I mean , you don't think

17:49

of it when you don't know it , to think that you actually

17:51

, that you didn't have any of that shampoo , or

17:54

anything like that .

17:55

I mean I had a prison ID in my paper sack

17:57

just to be able

17:59

to sit and eat dinner and watch TV and

18:02

then the next morning to wake

18:04

up and be like this is real , like this

18:07

is really happening , like I'm not in prison anymore

18:09

. It was crazy , like the freedom Freedom

18:13

is , uh , freedom

18:15

.

18:17

You definitely have an appreciation for it . I

18:19

mean , like I said , someone like me who's never

18:21

I mean I've always , I've never not had freedom

18:24

, but because of that I've never thought about it

18:26

. Yeah , I don't think about it in the same way that

18:28

you do . It's crazy .

18:30

I remember the biggest thing for me was that , I

18:32

noted , was that Wicked Snack . Like

18:35

you could , they had a little din . You

18:38

know , sit in there and watch TV and eat

18:40

chips and I thought that was neat . And

18:42

then he had a computer and

18:45

you know he was trying to get down to business with me

18:47

that first night and he was like we're going to

18:49

need to set you up an email address and

18:51

I was like what is that ? Like I don't know .

18:53

Oh yeah .

18:54

What does that mean ? Like what ?

18:55

That did all come just half , like in the

18:57

90s .

18:58

I don't know what that did . We would in prison

19:00

. We would see commercials or like on the news

19:02

where they talked about the world wide web

19:05

or the internet or

19:07

Yahoo or America online , and we

19:09

didn't know what that meant . We didn't understand

19:11

it . Like we

19:14

didn't know what it meant .

19:15

Yeah .

19:15

And then he wanted me to have an email address

19:17

and he explained to me , like when you go for job interviews

19:20

, they're going to want , and I was like

19:22

what for for

19:24

what ? And so he set me up . He helped me

19:26

set up . My first email address was JKJ5372

19:29

at ALLcom and I would keep that for the next 10

19:32

or so years , till , all you

19:34

know , till Gmail came around . Right After

19:37

we set it up . I was like , okay , now what do I do

19:39

with it ? And he was like , well , you

19:41

can send emails . And then so

19:43

he started sending me emails and

19:45

I would open the emails and it like had some

19:48

words . I was like , but you're sitting right here and suddenly

19:50

I don't understand the concept

19:52

, I'm not getting the concept . So it took me a minute . Then he tried

19:54

to show me what the internet was and

19:56

it was that old , it was the dial-up

20:00

. That yeah . And I just like this

20:02

is just , this is not productive . Like

20:05

I mean , I'm good little did you

20:07

know ? I'm good with books . Just let me , I'll

20:09

just read , I'll just use my book . But

20:12

the first stop was the

20:14

parole office .

20:15

Okay , and that's where you met your parole officer

20:17

.

20:19

And apparently I got the the

20:22

doozy .

20:23

And what like . What is the role or the job

20:25

of the parole officer like ? What's the

20:27

point there ?

20:30

Hey guys , hang tight , we'll be right back

20:32

.

20:35

Hi , I'm Clarissa Christensen , the

20:37

host of Thriving Through Menopause

20:39

. If you're in perimenopause

20:42

or menopause and feeling anxious

20:44

, confused and alone , this

20:47

is the place to get some answers . Here

20:50

you'll learn about lifestyle interventions

20:53

and mindset shifts to

20:55

help you feel positive , informed

20:57

and connected . Join

20:59

me and my guests as we educate

21:02

, empower and motivate you

21:04

to thrive not just survive

21:07

in menopause and beyond

21:09

. Remember , you've got this

21:11

Subscribe wherever you listen

21:13

to podcasts .

21:18

You report to them and they're basically

21:20

, when you're on parole , they're in charge of you , they can arrest

21:23

you , they can put handcuffs on you and take you to jail

21:25

. Oh , wow , yeah , because when

21:27

you make parole you're out , you're free , but

21:30

you belong to them until you complete

21:33

the parole because , technically , you're still

21:35

a prisoner on parole . So

21:39

when I got in there and I met her they're

21:41

right , she was all business . She was

21:43

not . There was no warm

21:46

fuzzies , no fun and games

21:48

, it was all business . And

21:50

she started telling me all the things

21:52

and I just took out my notepad

21:54

and started taking notes . You know , whatever

21:57

I need to do , I'm going to do it

22:00

. How did she say it ? She said you're

22:03

free and you can go walk down the sidewalk

22:05

like anybody else , but you're

22:08

not free like other people because you

22:11

have this hanging over you . So anything you do

22:13

can I can send you back to

22:15

prison . So , whatever I , if I can

22:17

come to your house , I can come to your job

22:19

, I can you know

22:21

anything and they can . They have that

22:23

power . Basically

22:26

, you belong to them and

22:28

there's nothing you can do except

22:30

whatever they want you to do , right ? So

22:33

she gave me this big list and she

22:36

was very harsh with

22:38

me , like I'm not playing games

22:40

with you , but later

22:42

on she told me . She said I've been

22:44

a parole officer for 18 years

22:46

and when you came in my

22:48

office and you started taking notes of the things

22:51

that I was telling you , that was the first time

22:53

that's ever happened . There's never been

22:55

anybody .

22:55

That's hard to believe , though , really for me , like

22:58

thinking someone coming out of prison

23:00

.

23:00

You would think that everyone has the want

23:02

to to stay out of prison and like , let

23:04

me just make sure I'm well , I was just serious about my

23:06

freedom , right , because they can any technical

23:09

violation , I mean , but I'd seen guys

23:11

come back to prison for stupid stuff

23:13

. Right , right Just for , like moving

23:15

, like if you live somewhere and if you move somewhere else and

23:17

you don't tell them , then that's a violation

23:19

. Or if you step over a state line

23:21

, that's a violation Really

23:23

. Yeah , like I couldn't even go see my granny

23:25

unless I got a . Oh wow

23:28

, you have to get a traveling pass .

23:30

Well , it's like the simple stuff . Like you had

23:32

your notebook and we're taking notes to

23:35

remind yourself of what you need to do . I mean , it's

23:37

just so simple . I didn't want to forget . Right

23:39

, Exactly that's what I'm like making the point .

23:41

No , I'm like we can gamble . We can

23:43

gamble with other stuff

23:45

, but I'm not gambling with my freedom . Right , I'm not

23:48

. I'm taking my freedom . I'm taking my freedom

23:50

serious . We

23:52

went to Rossies in Birmingham . I

23:54

talked to her and

23:57

her husband , pat they were like co-managers

23:59

and the dining room manager His name was Nabil-

24:02

Nabil . Nabil

24:04

. He was from Israel , uh-huh , but

24:06

he wasn't Jewish , he was , uh , like

24:09

Palestinian , I guess . And

24:11

they didn't even make me feel

24:13

application , and I was just honest

24:16

about you know everything , didn't

24:18

hide anything , and they

24:20

told me to be there tomorrow .

24:22

Here's the deal . I just got out of prison two

24:24

days ago .

24:25

No one day ago .

24:26

One day ago .

24:27

I got out of prison yesterday morning

24:31

.

24:31

Nice to meet you .

24:33

This is Tuesday around lunchtime . I

24:35

got out of prison yesterday morning . That

24:37

is so funny . Two days ago I was at West Jefferson

24:40

.

24:40

I can just envision that conversation

24:42

. I mean , just break this down for

24:44

you .

24:44

Well , I didn't want to know , but he had already

24:47

told her the backstory , so they already knew . Yeah

24:49

, and it was . But this was a nice

24:51

place . This was like like

24:53

the Hilton Hotel they

24:56

were and they hired me .

24:57

Wow .

24:58

And so I

25:00

got a job . And

25:03

not just that I got a job , but it was a job I wanted

25:05

.

25:06

Oh , shepard's Fold is a halfway house . I did

25:08

have a question when I was thinking about recording today

25:10

, because I just don't have any

25:13

experience with a halfway house . What exactly

25:15

is a halfway house ? Cause , when I think of that

25:17

term , I think of people that are on drugs

25:19

, that don't pay their rent , that are just

25:21

finding an abandoned house and going

25:23

and living in it .

25:24

No , I mean most halfway houses

25:26

are programs . Oh , okay , so they're trying to help

25:28

people . There's different types . There's some for

25:31

people like coming out of recovery or trying

25:33

to get off drugs . There's some for people

25:36

that just have had , you know , like financial

25:38

problems and they need some help

25:40

. You know they got to , they need a place to land to figure

25:42

it out . And then there's some , you

25:44

know , when I when I had Kairos in Birmingham

25:46

, I worked with the Bethany home and it was it

25:49

was a halfway house but it was helping women come out

25:51

of abuse , like it was a secret house

25:53

, nobody knew . Like

25:55

they made me . You can't say where this is

25:57

.

25:57

Yeah .

25:58

And they would help women , you know , escape

26:01

their abusers and put their life back together and then move

26:03

on . And then there are other ones where

26:05

they can bring their kids . They're just all over

26:08

and but they're not all good . Now , all halfway houses

26:10

are not just cause they say they got a 501

26:12

C three in their nonprofit does not

26:14

make them good cause . Some of them are rough

26:16

.

26:17

Well , another question random

26:19

why do they call it a halfway house ? You're

26:22

halfway somewhere .

26:24

Well , the idea is it's it's like a step

26:26

up . So I didn't want to go to a halfway

26:29

house , I wanted to go home . You know , steve was the one

26:31

who taught me into it and he taught me

26:33

it was part of my parole plan of

26:35

committing . You know , it's not long , what is

26:37

four months ? And I remember , as

26:40

I was debating whether he was right or not , it

26:42

did sound wise Like you don't want to get straight

26:44

out of prison , you don't want to go . He called

26:46

it going to mama NIM's house . Don't don't go home

26:48

to mama NIM , go figure it out somewhere else . So

26:51

there was a part of me that felt like he was right

26:53

. But then there's another part of me that felt like , you

26:55

know , I don't want to do all that , but

26:57

I was . As I was thinking about that , you

26:59

know , a couple of two , three days when we're doing our parole plan

27:02

, I thought to myself , how many four months

27:04

did I do in prison ? And I counted

27:06

them up and I did a lot of four months in prison

27:08

. So four months is nothing . And

27:11

it ended up being like one

27:13

of my best decisions was going there

27:15

, because it just gave me I didn't have

27:17

to go straight out into the world and start trying

27:19

to figure it out . I had some room

27:21

to breathe and you know they helped

27:24

me . You know , get to the next place , and that

27:26

was his goal . Halfway

27:28

houses for people coming to prison are

27:30

just to help you take the step to

27:32

get to where you need to be , like halfway

27:35

to full freedom or something , yeah Okay

27:38

.

27:38

So you got there and what was your first

27:40

impression ? Or thought like , what did you do ? You

27:42

check in like a hotel ?

27:44

No , I was , uh , I

27:46

was shocked by the neighborhood . I'd already been

27:48

prepped , though . There were a lot of guys

27:51

that were with me in the honor dorm that were from Birmingham

27:53

and they were familiar with Southwest

27:55

Birmingham . It's a bad neighborhood

27:57

and I had

27:59

two or three of them even the day before , the

28:01

night before or the day I left , to say James

28:04

, look me in the eyes , I know how hardheaded you

28:06

are , you're stubborn , you think you can do

28:08

it Whatever you want . Don't go for a walk

28:10

in the neighborhood by yourself and don't even go

28:12

outside at night . And they were

28:14

right . It was scary and it

28:16

was like one way during the day , but at night

28:19

you hear gunshots , you hear screams , you

28:21

hear sirens . It was just , it was rough , it was

28:23

a rough neighborhood . So I , I was

28:25

prepared for that , but I , you know , I told myself

28:27

, you know , I'm just gotta do what I do , I ain't in prison

28:29

. And then I

28:32

was also taken back

28:34

by . Like it just looked

28:36

like poverty , like it was an

28:38

old rundown house . It was like one of those big

28:40

old timing houses

28:43

like from , you know , 200 years ago , where

28:45

there are steps in the middle , no

28:47

hallways . Every room led to another room

28:49

, led to another room and there were like 40

28:52

, 30 , 40 guys living there

28:55

and I mean it was like square

28:58

footage wise , it would have been like a mansion , but

29:00

it was . You know , it was rundown and decrepit

29:02

and old and yeah , but 40 people

29:04

living in . Well , we had plenty

29:06

of space , it wasn't . It wasn't

29:08

like tight , like we weren't like busting at

29:10

the seams . Everybody had their own space . Most

29:12

of the rooms were two man rooms . Some of them were

29:14

three man rooms and then there were two or three

29:17

like one man rooms . You know

29:19

, it didn't take me long to negotiate . I

29:23

think my second month I negotiated

29:25

. You know , I need that one man room

29:28

because it was a , it

29:30

was a trip but you started in a three

29:32

man room , or it was a two man room . I

29:34

was in a middle room , which meant that

29:37

my room was like a hallway , so

29:39

there was me and somebody else sleeping on the next

29:41

bed over , but there were huge rooms so it

29:43

wasn't like we were close . I had my

29:45

own closet with and he had his own closet

29:48

, and Joe had told me go straight

29:50

and get a lock before you put anything in your closet

29:53

. And I didn't

29:55

listen and I found out quick

29:58

that they stole

30:00

everything there . There was still your toilet paper

30:02

, there was still your toothpaste , there was still your

30:04

toothbrush . They were still there

30:06

was they was still anything that you left

30:08

laying there , except for a Bible

30:10

or any kind of book .

30:11

Who's they ? The other men living there , the other people

30:13

?

30:14

living there , yeah , so it was like I digressed

30:16

. It was worse than prison in that sense

30:18

, so that was a shot

30:20

.

30:20

That's crazy , I would say . My only experience that's

30:22

like even close to that is I stayed in

30:24

a hostel when I was traveling

30:26

. What is a hostel ?

30:27

Is that like where Hooker's no , james

30:29

, no , it's like a brothel

30:32

, yes , big difference , so he gave me

30:39

some bus passes that first day , these little

30:41

tokens , and he told me

30:43

gave me a car Copy of the bus route of the Birmingham

30:45

Metro , what else ? Called and

30:48

told me I need to go find a job . So I was like

30:50

I already got a job . But

30:53

I was . I was like

30:55

torn because I was like they just push

30:58

people out the door in the morning morning , tell them go

31:00

get on a bus . I don't even know how to ride a bus , I

31:02

don't know where they go , I don't know

31:04

how it works . I mean I could figure

31:06

it out . I'm really wrong . Yeah , but

31:08

I braced myself

31:10

. I'm not going to be able to get my car from them , I'm

31:12

just going to have to learn how to ride the bus

31:15

. But I ended up the way it

31:17

ended up I would have . I didn't

31:19

feel like I was too good to ride the bus , but then

31:21

people just started wanting to help

31:23

and give me rides and stuff . So it didn't know

31:25

. So you never had to ride it . No

31:27

, and it didn't take me long to once

31:29

I started working to save up my money and then

31:31

get my savings

31:34

account that he wanted to get insurance and

31:36

stuff like that and to be

31:38

able to have my car . So it was like six

31:41

weeks maybe before I got my car . But it was like

31:43

getting out of prison again , cause now I'm free . I'm so

31:45

free I can go where I want , except you have to be

31:47

back by six . Yeah

31:49

, and now it was another

31:51

one , the guy that was the staff person there

31:53

.

31:54

Was that the assistant hobby ?

31:56

or a happy . His name was happy , okay

31:58

, and he was skinny little guy . He

32:00

ended him Haggard looking . No

32:02

, he was like from Ohio , okay , but

32:05

he looked like like a stoner

32:08

, like he was out smoking weed he wasn't , but

32:10

like he had that look like like a hippie kind

32:12

of look . And he what ?

32:13

does the stoner ?

32:14

look like , you know just unkept , I

32:16

was wearing flip flops . Oh okay

32:18

, just lounging . You know lamping

32:21

dreads he didn't

32:23

have dreads , but I could see him with dreads . Okay

32:25

, you know I carry a backpack everywhere . I don't

32:27

know

32:31

I didn't like him and he didn't like

32:33

me . What didn't you like about him ? He was

32:35

annoying . He was like this , uh

32:37

, like little spur in my side

32:39

from the time I walked in there , like

32:42

somebody , someone toilet paper . The second

32:44

day I was there and if you

32:46

have to use the bathroom , you have to have toilet paper .

32:48

Okay , pause , though Maybe it's some

32:50

people don't know . I don't know if we've mentioned this before

32:52

, but James is very particular about his

32:54

toilet paper . I know eight years that

32:57

we've been married , I

32:59

have bought the wrong toilet paper a couple

33:01

of times and that was not okay

33:03

. It's only the blue Charmin , right

33:05

. That's what I mean

33:08

. I'm pulling up on me the pandemic thing had nothing

33:10

on team Jones , because we were good

33:12

on our toilet paper , yeah Well

33:15

that came from prison .

33:16

Right , I learned that in prison . Like you have to stay ahead because

33:18

you never know . You never know when things change

33:20

, yeah , like you can get in a toilet paper

33:23

drought . Like I'm gonna have mine

33:25

. I might even sell you a role

33:27

.

33:27

No , I wouldn't do that , but uh okay

33:30

, so he got on me about the toilet paper and

33:32

like screaming at me Wait , it got stolen from you

33:34

, though , right .

33:35

Yeah . So I went and asked for another toilet paper

33:37

and he started screaming at me . Didn't understand

33:39

, I didn't know . And I said don't

33:41

I pay rent ? Don't we pay rent ? They

33:44

don't pay for the toilet paper . Blah

33:46

, blah , blah and like just . And this was like my

33:48

second day , and it was like it

33:50

was after 1030 because the doors were locked and

33:53

I said just give me the toilet paper and

33:55

for the rest of my time here , I promise you , you'll

33:57

never , I will never ask you for another

33:59

toilet paper or anything . So

34:02

just let me get . And I

34:04

didn't , I wouldn't bum on toilet paper . There

34:07

was something about Birmingham that

34:10

was like Atlanta , but

34:13

not it

34:15

was like for me . Birmingham was

34:17

like a collection of small towns just

34:19

all pushed together , whereas Atlanta

34:21

was like this big metro , like

34:24

you know , just everything

34:27

happening .

34:28

So there was a familiarity , but also

34:30

it was different , something new . Yeah

34:34

, I just want to talk more about what

34:36

did that keep stepping ? Look like so

34:38

you were coming out of your

34:40

brothel I was about to say brothel

34:42

.

34:43

Brothel , I wouldn't know

34:46

I wasn't a hooker .

34:48

You were halfway house .

34:50

I was trying to apologize . I don't know where I

34:52

came from .

34:53

I think I like halfway house in brothel . You're thinking ?

34:54

hostile . You're thinking hostile

34:57

Because the last episode you said you said hostile .

34:59

Yeah , but brothel is totally different

35:01

, I don't know what

35:03

. Ok , so you kept stepping , you were

35:06

keeping the step and it was important and

35:08

I agree with all that .

35:10

And it kind of stunk the way you said that

35:12

.

35:13

I think you talked about this last episode .

35:15

No , I didn't , it was the one that we taped that we

35:17

didn't tape . Oh , ha

35:20

, ha ha ha . Yes , we

35:23

actually taped one and , hey , we had our microphone

35:25

turned around so we had to re-tape

35:27

it . And this one's funny

35:29

because I talked about Jimmy

35:32

Dunn and Walter like they were big

35:34

in the Catholic Church , me

35:36

and Walter not so much . Walter came and picked me

35:38

up one night and took me through . He

35:40

gave me a ride through Birmingham in his

35:42

brand new Ford Escort I've

35:45

been so proud of , but it was at night

35:48

and it was like downtown

35:50

Birmingham , southside , through UAB , all

35:52

that stuff , and I was just like , wow

35:55

, this is the big city . I was in New

35:57

York , but I mean , I know it wasn't , but

35:59

it felt like that to me . And

36:02

there had been a conversation the night before

36:04

was that

36:07

I know that Catholics don't let you take communion

36:09

unless you're confirmed as a Catholic

36:11

. And so I

36:13

was just saying I know I can't

36:15

take communion at the Catholic Church and

36:18

he said , james , you're more Catholic

36:20

than most Catholics that I know . So

36:23

he said , if you can take communion , if you want to

36:25

just go to my wife , and

36:27

I was like , ok , so

36:29

we get to Catholic Church . It was a beautiful church

36:32

, beautiful service . Jimmy

36:35

actually was the minister of music

36:37

so he played on these or

36:39

he played as the organist , like ah , ah , ah , ah , ah ah

36:42

. But it wasn't like the

36:44

Baptist Church where they have a little piano where it

36:46

was like the pipes went through the ceiling . It

36:49

was beautiful and he was the one up there like

36:51

getting down the organ

36:53

or whatever Getting down at the Catholic

36:56

Church . But I

36:58

was taken back by how many times I had to

37:00

stand up , sit down , stand up , sit down , stand

37:02

up , sit down . And then they wanted to do all

37:04

this repeating and

37:07

then they passed the offering plate like seven times

37:10

. I'm like how many times . I mean how

37:13

much money y'all got . I mean what's

37:15

happening here ? But we went down there , took

37:17

communion , I took the bread and

37:20

then I took the wine and

37:23

it was real wine . So

37:25

you know I'm straight out

37:27

of prison , like I haven't had anything

37:30

to drink in like 10 years probably

37:32

and I got a

37:34

buzz like for the wine . I was like what

37:36

?

37:37

Some kind of communion wine ?

37:38

Yes , it was strong wine . It was not

37:40

. It wasn't like it was wine

37:42

, it was like it was close

37:44

to whiskey . I mean , I don't know .

37:46

I don't know about that .

37:47

But no , but I got a buzz , Like I almost

37:49

stumbled back to my thing

37:51

. Yes , I did , I did , I promise . But I

37:54

was also like struggling with , like guilt , because

37:56

you had to sign a thing in Shepherd'sville that said you

37:58

wouldn't drink alcohol . And I was like I'm

38:00

afraid I'm getting in trouble . And Walter was like relax

38:03

, change , relax . But then

38:05

after the service we were

38:07

waiting on Jimmy and his wife to get done

38:09

because they work there or whatever , and

38:12

we were standing up at the front and people

38:14

would walk by and like bow down , like

38:17

the people would just walk by and just bow down and

38:20

there was nobody up , because I noticed they were bowing

38:22

down to the priest , but they

38:24

were just walking by , just like bow

38:26

down , bow down . And so I

38:28

was like what are they doing

38:30

? And he was like oh , they're reverencing

38:33

the Ark . And

38:35

I was like the what he was like the Ark

38:37

, that's where Jesus is . And

38:39

I was like where's

38:42

Jesus ? And he was like well

38:44

, the priest made the bread

38:46

turn into the body of the Jesus and

38:48

the wine turned into the blood of the Jesus and

38:51

then the leftovers were put in the Ark . So

38:53

that's why they're bowing down . And so

38:55

I was like do you believe

38:57

that ? And he was like yes

39:00

, I do . And so I said Jesus

39:04

isn't me . And he was like I know

39:06

it's because you took communion . And I was like no , no

39:08

, hold up , bro . Jesus wasn't

39:10

me before I came in here . But

39:13

there was a little bit of pressure from them like

39:15

we think you should be here , and I was like I think

39:17

I should not . I've already found . My church

39:19

is the World Victory Church in Vistavia

39:22

. But

39:24

I went and during the state it was like

39:26

one of those big . It was like a very formal service

39:28

but I was chewing gum and apparently

39:31

, according to the Word of Faith people , that's a cardinal

39:33

sin . Like you , don't chew gum during

39:36

the service . But somebody came up to me during

39:38

the service and said I'm on need to get

39:40

your gum and I was like what ? Well

39:42

, they wanted to spit it out on their hands or something . No

39:44

, they came with a napkin , like I'm going to need you to give

39:46

me your gum , and I was like , what are you

39:48

talking about ? And they were , like pastor

39:50

says , gum chewing disturbs the anointing

39:52

. So I was like , are

39:55

you serious ? But

39:58

so I gave him my gum . But I was like I'll give you

40:00

my gum but I won't be back . This

40:04

is Steve Long . Steve Long had a deep relationship

40:07

with him , but what I found out after

40:09

I got to the Shepherdsville was that Joel Brumbach

40:11

went to church at Steve's Church . Habbie

40:13

, the guy that drove me crazy , the little assistant

40:15

man , habbie , he

40:17

went to Steve's Church . Hey

40:21

guys , hang tight , we'll be right back

40:23

.

40:26

To some extent , we're all still trying to figure

40:28

out what we want to be when we grow up . In fact

40:30

, it was from that struggle that I started my

40:32

podcast , career Sweet Spot . I'm

40:34

Steve Perkins . I'm the founder of Greenhouse

40:36

Coaching and , together with my team , we explore

40:38

everything about this topic on our podcast

40:41

, career Sweet Spot . We share ideas

40:43

, practical steps and insights we've gathered

40:45

from coaching thousands of individuals and companies

40:48

. On Career Sweet Spot , we like to joke

40:50

and have fun while also tackling the biggest topics

40:52

intentional people are thinking about in

40:54

their work , their leadership and their life . So

40:57

why don't you press pause and hit subscribe to

40:59

Career Sweet Spot , a podcast all

41:01

about life and career growth ?

41:07

I feel like I need to say his name like that every time

41:09

Habbie , Habbie , Habbie

41:12

.

41:12

Habbie was a trip . Habbie

41:15

was a trip , but they all went to Steve's

41:17

Church . I wasn't sure what to expect

41:19

. I knew I loved Steve . I was connected to

41:21

Joel . Couldn't stand Habbie Didn't

41:24

really know anything else but I knew that , like

41:27

his daughter , sean was going there and I thought

41:29

, you know , I need to hook up with that little something

41:31

.

41:31

So did we talk about that ? We talked about

41:33

it last night .

41:34

Yeah , I felt like she was . You know , there was

41:36

. Yes , there was some connections there . I don't

41:38

think about one , but when I went

41:40

in it was like in a like a

41:42

conference room . There might have been like

41:45

50 , 60 people there , but

41:47

they started the service with an open

41:50

mic where they invited

41:52

people to the open mic after worship

41:54

.

41:54

Is that like karaoke open mic ?

41:56

No , just where they called it share time

41:59

.

42:00

OK .

42:00

And so I was like immediately like struck

42:02

, like Steve , are you going

42:05

to give people a microphone ? Like I've

42:07

been in prison , I know what happens in

42:09

church services when you let somebody

42:11

go , like it's just they could go

42:13

. They could go all kind of ways . But

42:16

the first person that got up was an older lady

42:19

who got up , was not sharing

42:21

about anything , except that

42:24

she was making organic dog biscuits

42:26

that are really good for dogs

42:28

and very healthy

42:30

for dogs .

42:31

So she was marketing her business .

42:33

She was selling her dog biscuits and

42:36

I was just like this is not

42:38

, this is not the place for me . I

42:41

mean , I'll do this for like this one time , but

42:43

like I'm one and done I'm out . I

42:46

saved up money , was able to get

42:48

my first apartment , which was and

42:52

I guess that was kind of complicated because

42:54

Tommy was helping me and

42:56

he kept . I found out he

42:58

had a lot of free time when he wasn't

43:00

wallpapering or pastoring and

43:04

he kept finding me these apartments that

43:07

I didn't want , Like he would

43:09

. He found me this one , I

43:12

know the Lord Jesus , the spirit , spoke to

43:14

me and told me this was your apartment and it was because

43:16

it was close to him . And I went and

43:19

looked at it and there was no washer and dryer connections and I was like , where

43:21

am I supposed to wash my clothes ? And he was like

43:23

, oh , they have a laundromat . And I was like , no , I'm not doing a laundry

43:26

mat , Like

43:29

I'm no , like if I'm going to get an apartment

43:31

, I need to be able to wash my clothes . And

43:34

so I had not a lot of standards

43:36

but I had a . I guess that was the only one I need to be able to . They have

43:39

to have a washer and dryer connection . I

43:42

ain't going to laundry mat and he didn't understand that

43:44

. But I was just like I know myself , Like I need to be

43:46

able to wash my clothes . So

43:50

everyone that he found I turned him down , but

43:53

then in my vision that I wrote

43:55

it , said you will find a nice place to live in

43:58

, a good area . So that like narrowed

44:00

the gap for me and

44:02

so I would show him that

44:04

like I'm supposed to find a good area , Like

44:07

I'm not supposed to live where it's cheap , I'm

44:09

supposed to find a good area . And he got aggravated

44:12

with me but I was like I'm going to hold out for the good area

44:14

. So

44:17

what ended up happening was he had a cousin

44:19

I forget her name , but she was renting

44:22

a duplex in Kaba Heights , like three blocks from where him

44:24

and Brenda lived in this big fancy neighborhood , but

44:29

it was right behind the summit in Birmingham and

44:31

it was a duplex . And

44:34

she decided or got married or something . I

44:37

forget what happened , but it was like one of those deals where it

44:39

was a small real estate company on this property and

44:42

you had to know somebody to get you in

44:44

. And he was able

44:46

to get me in and

44:48

ended up being able to rent that duplex

44:51

apartment and it was $300

44:53

a month , which was insane

44:56

. Which ?

44:57

is insane legit .

45:00

So the ladies wanted to throw me a housewarming

45:03

party and I thought that was cool . But then I was kind of

45:05

weird because I was like ain't that what you do when you get married

45:07

? And they were like no , you're starting your own home

45:09

. Like you need things .

45:11

Yeah , for sure , that's a thing for sure .

45:13

So I was like , okay , let's do that . And then somehow

45:16

I got out at my job that

45:18

I was having a housewarming party and then all of a sudden

45:20

, all them people wanted to come . So it

45:22

turned into like this huge like

45:24

event and it was on a Sunday and

45:27

somebody brought food and it was just . This

45:30

was a little bitty dupe . It

45:32

was a two bedroom , you know probably

45:35

7 , 800 square feet

45:37

, and there was like 30 people that came through

45:39

there that day . But there was one

45:41

of the assistant chefs that worked at Rossi's

45:44

. He was from Italy and he did not speak

45:46

very good . He could speak English , but it wasn't

45:48

like great English . And I remember him

45:50

. His wife was the banquets

45:52

director there and she

45:54

was American . She spoke good English . But

45:56

he came up to me and was like James , I really

45:58

want to come to your party , but can you

46:00

tell me , like , explain to me like what is

46:02

? How do you say a warm

46:05

house party ? So

46:07

it was like no , it's a housewarming party

46:09

and

46:12

I had all these people up on the stage and he would preach

46:14

and they were singing and hollering and do all that stuff . But

46:16

there was many times I would look up and

46:18

there would be more people on the stage than there were

46:20

in the congregation . So it was just

46:22

like I don't know . But

46:24

I didn't want to leave because I had this statistic

46:27

that I heard yeah , if you can

46:29

be with one church with

46:31

one job for one year , then your statistics

46:33

go up and making it . So I was like struggling

46:36

with that . Plus I didn't want to church hop . But

46:38

then it kind of came to a head

46:40

when they did a special church

46:43

service where they had a visiting

46:45

traveling person that

46:47

came in . His

46:49

name was Tim , I don't remember his last name .

46:51

So a visiting , traveling person , like

46:53

for those of us that I don't

46:55

know .

46:56

He like went around from church to church and put on services

46:58

, like spoke or whatever

47:00

. Oh , he didn't want to speak . They

47:04

say that he was a prophet , and a prophet

47:06

if you don't know what that is , there's people that can tell you

47:08

things that God is saying to you . But

47:11

he also said that he was an anointed psalmist

47:13

and I was like what does that mean

47:15

? Somebody that was next to me was like it

47:17

means he writes his own songs

47:20

from the Lord . So I was like okay . And

47:22

then out in the lobby he was also

47:25

had a clothing business with

47:27

Christian symbols on him .

47:29

So he was a . Let's break this down . He was

47:31

a prophet . He was a prophet , a songwriter . He was a songwriter

47:34

, songwriter AK , anointed psalmist

47:36

Singer . He also had a clothing

47:38

line .

47:39

Clothing line . It's called Zion clothes

47:41

or something , some religious thing attached to it

47:43

, but they were like . It was like ain't nobody

47:46

finna pay $80 for no pair of jeans , especially

47:48

looking like that Were they .

47:49

anointed jeans , were they ?

47:51

He said they were . But you know I'm not into

47:53

all that . So he was doing , he started

47:55

off the night with a little message and he was going

47:57

to do the prophecies . So that

48:00

means everybody's supposed to walk up there and he's supposed to

48:02

tell you something . So I walked up

48:04

there and he like laid his hands on me

48:06

and like took a deep breath and

48:08

shivered and was like I have

48:10

a word for you , brother James . So

48:12

I was like , and I was like sincere

48:15

, like I'm waiting on my word . And he

48:17

was like I see a book opened . The

48:19

book is opened from Birmingham to

48:21

Montgomery . The interpretation

48:24

of this vision is that you shall preach the

48:26

gospel from Birmingham to Montgomery

48:28

and from Montgomery to Birmingham , but

48:31

nowhere else . And I was like , what

48:33

does that even mean ? Like you know

48:35

, even none of this is and I've been

48:37

, I've studied , I have teaching . Like they

48:40

say , if somebody gives you a prophecy , you either know

48:42

it's right or it's not . And if you know

48:44

it's not , then you're not supposed to even think

48:46

about it . So I went back and sat down and was

48:48

like , well , maybe , maybe

48:50

he's , you know , good for

48:52

somebody else . Maybe Jesus don't want to tell me anything

48:55

tonight . But

48:57

he started singing a song and

48:59

the song was about the anointing , and that's what

49:01

they call like when the God's presence comes

49:03

down . And the

49:05

anointing . In the Old Testament they did it with oil

49:08

. So that's

49:10

like how they you

49:12

know some of these With

49:14

oil . What do they do with oil ? Well

49:17

, in the Old Testament they would anoint people with oil

49:19

. Does that mean ?

49:21

you pour it on them , or ?

49:22

Yeah , like the priests and the , but

49:25

these were Jewish people , Like they did . This was

49:27

a long and plus . You needed oil back then because you

49:29

were dry and I don't know , I don't know , let's

49:31

start off with that .

49:32

I know no , but I'm trying to understand . When you're talking

49:34

like this , it's like what In Old Testament

49:36

they used .

49:37

They used oil to like anoint kings

49:39

and prophets and people , and

49:41

so in the New Testament the anointing is this is

49:44

not that , it's the spirit of

49:47

God , that's the anointing . So

49:49

he started singing about the anointing and

49:51

he's up there and he's got like one of those little pop

49:54

up keyboard things and he's

49:56

up there Toot , toot , toot , toot , toot , toot , toot

49:58

, toot , toot , toot . And then he starts

50:00

singing about the anointing and then he starts

50:03

calling it the grease and

50:05

he says , okay , oil , yeah

50:08

. So he starts calling it the grease and I

50:10

think he I think they said he was making this up

50:12

in real time , I don't know , but then he

50:14

started singing , the song was released

50:16

to grease . So he was like Lord , release

50:19

the grease , release

50:21

the grease . And it was getting weirder and weirder

50:23

, like by the second . It just

50:25

kept like it was just more weird and weird

50:27

. So I'm sitting there . There was probably 50

50:29

people in the congregation , maybe

50:32

a little bit more . So they started

50:34

a march , they started riding the train

50:36

. You know , come on , ride this train . They

50:39

ride it , chew , chew chew . Come

50:41

on , ride the train . It's the chew , chew . But

50:43

it was the release , the grease train . So

50:46

everybody was on the train going

50:48

around the church , hollering and carrying on

50:50

, and it was not a very big church

50:52

, it was just a little . I

50:55

don't , I couldn't get up , I couldn't do it , you

50:58

couldn't bring yourself to I couldn't get on that train

51:00

. And I was watching the train and

51:03

they were going around and he just kept getting louder

51:05

and louder and he would say the same thing over release

51:07

the grease . Then he started spelling

51:09

R-E-L-E-A-S-E-T-A-G-G-R-E-A-E-S-E

51:14

.

51:14

You know just so were people singing

51:16

along with him or clapping or what ? Yeah , they were

51:18

carrying on .

51:19

They were carrying on so they went around a few times

51:21

. I was towards the back and I didn't get on the train

51:23

. So they stopped the train for

51:25

James and the pastor's wife

51:27

was like James , come on , you're supposed to be on this train

51:30

. So I was like I

51:32

don't want to get on the train . She was like come on and get on

51:34

this train , get on this

51:36

train . So I got up , got

51:38

on the train , I walked , I didn't holler

51:41

into , I walked around one

51:43

full time . One lap . Did one

51:45

lap on the train and I got to

51:47

the end , stepped off the train

51:49

. I wasn't in the middle anymore . I looked back and I

51:51

said , Lord Jesus , this is not where I'm supposed

51:54

to be . And I left and I never went back .

51:56

You never went back after that .

51:58

Nope , that's the end . And

52:01

the last one I did for Greg

52:03

was in Vestavia . It was a big

52:05

house that we were there for like two weeks with all kinds

52:07

of stuff but we were putting in a sprinkler system in the back

52:09

and I'd

52:12

started to trench a hole and

52:14

I was at the edge of a . I

52:16

don't know if a trencher is like a thing that goes down in the ground

52:18

, like you lower it with a switch

52:21

and it goes down and it just it creates like

52:23

a little thin hole to be able to

52:25

run pipes through for a sprinkler

52:27

system . But as I was lowering

52:29

that down in at the edge of

52:32

the yard next to the fence , it hit a rock and

52:34

it bounced . And when it bounced it

52:36

grabbed the chain link fence .

52:39

Oh my gosh .

52:40

No , it was a miracle that I didn't get hurt . But

52:43

it was like the fence was there one

52:45

time , one minute , and the next minute the fence

52:47

was gone . And then it

52:49

was just there were just poles standing

52:51

there and I felt like the poles were mocking

52:54

me . Like what are you doing ? What

52:56

are you doing here ? You feel like the poles were

52:58

mocking you . They were mocking me . The poles were

53:00

just looking at me like why are you doing this

53:02

? Like this is not because I'm not even good

53:04

at stuff , like I can play in a flower bed , but I can't

53:06

do it . So I got my little walkie-talkie

53:09

. It was like you go , and it was a phone too , but

53:11

if you did it , all the people would hear you . So

53:14

I was like , does anybody not a fix of chain link

53:16

fence ? And

53:18

my boss was like wow . And so

53:20

I drove back that day

53:22

. I went in and I said look , I appreciate you

53:24

giving me an opportunity . This

53:28

has been a hard slimmer , you know . I mean

53:30

he paid me the best he could . He did . I

53:32

mean you know I got some poison in now and I'm miserable

53:35

and I said this is , I'm tired of tearing

53:37

up your equipment and you have

53:39

this sadness about me and

53:41

you want to keep letting me do it , but this is , I'm not

53:43

made for this . So I said I want

53:45

, I'm putting a notice , I need to put in

53:47

a notice and I need to do something else . And he

53:49

said well , if you don't work here , what are you going to do

53:51

? I said I'm going back to my world . I'm going back to

53:53

the restaurant world . I'm going to get me a

53:55

job in a restaurant . And he was like how

53:58

long do you think that would take you to do that ? And I

54:00

said probably , I could probably find a job by the end of the day

54:02

. And he said well , you're

54:04

free if you want to just be done . Oh

54:06

, he was a good guy . Yeah , he knew he was

54:09

free , but

54:11

it was just . I was just in a like a lost

54:13

kind of place where it was just just

54:18

gosh . I

54:20

hate this . Like I hate everything about

54:22

this . I hate , you know , not

54:24

having enough money , I hate trying to figure it out , and it was

54:26

so one of the hardest things

54:28

I ever had to do is ask my mom to leave because

54:30

that hurt her feelings . And then you

54:32

know , but it was , you know , I had to do what

54:34

I had to do and

54:37

but again , every

54:39

day I would wake up and be like this is

54:41

not , this is not life , that's not what

54:43

I'm doing . I mean , I hate . I hated

54:46

both the jobs I was working . I hated the church I

54:48

was going to . I didn't hate it , I just felt like

54:50

I wasn't getting anything out of it . Right , she

54:53

called me and she said I know how

54:55

much you liked working in Italian and

54:58

you know you're doing so good and so great . I

55:00

just I took a job at this little place

55:02

on Rocky Ridge Road . It's called

55:04

Leonardo's . It's owned by one

55:06

of the Bruno's and Mr Fuletta . I

55:10

think you would love it . Here , small , we have a great

55:12

little lunch business , a little great little

55:14

dinner business . The food is authentic . So you

55:16

know everything . It just it

55:18

just feels like something you would love

55:20

. I think we'll

55:22

end up , maybe pause on that and

55:25

we'll pick up next , because that was where my season

55:27

changed .

55:27

Well , ok , so that is interesting

55:29

. Yes , let's pause and pick up next time . But you

55:32

say now you can see that's

55:34

where your season changed . But as you were

55:36

driving to that restaurant , you

55:38

got the job there like immediately . You

55:40

didn't know . But so

55:43

let me just say that this makes me very emotional

55:45

. I will , ok . So here's the deal . So

55:47

this is going is about to shift

55:49

your season , oh yeah , entirely

55:52

and get like a whole new kind of era

55:54

for you which we will unpack . My next

55:56

start , right , yeah . But here's

55:58

what I'm feeling , like led to encourage

56:01

myself , as

56:04

well as other people that are listening , that you

56:06

don't know , like , what

56:08

you're embarking on . Maybe what's happened even

56:10

recently , that is a total

56:12

shift in season for you , that

56:14

is a total shift in the air that you don't know

56:17

. That that's what that is . But just to know

56:19

that there is a gift , maybe that you don't

56:21

even realize you're walking out or

56:24

walking in right now . That's about to change things

56:26

for you .

56:27

Oh hey , guys , hang

56:30

tight , We'll be right back .

56:33

Hi , it's Ashley Rogues here , host

56:35

of the podcast called Dala

56:38

Dala Bills . This is a podcast devoted

56:40

to helping you learn and grow your financial

56:42

toolkit so you can ultimately respect

56:45

your money and foster long-term growth

56:47

. This podcast is for anyone looking to

56:49

improve their financial situation and

56:51

either grow from scratch or develop

56:53

new techniques to continue to thrive . People

56:56

are emotional creatures and ultimately make poor

56:58

financial decisions as a result . Let

57:00

me help you to make conscious

57:02

, non-emotional decisions about

57:04

your money . Listen to Dala Dala

57:06

Bills over on Apple Podcasts , Spotify

57:09

or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast

57:11

, that's true .

57:15

This next season of my life was one

57:18

of the best ones in my life , actually .

57:21

Why are we so emotional ? I don't know .

57:23

We're both starting to cry right now . It's

57:25

because you know the story . Okay

57:28

, the first shift I had , they told me

57:30

that Rafael was

57:33

going to train me , so I

57:35

had to . Dana was like you got to follow him at least one

57:37

shift and you can start waiting tables tomorrow . But you've got

57:39

to know the menu . The menu

57:41

was similar to the one we had at Rossies

57:44

but there was neat stuff on there that

57:46

was like they did a rolled

57:49

eggplant Parmesan type

57:51

of deal . There was just a lot of stuff on there that was new that I

57:53

had to figure out what it was . But

57:55

that first night Rafael was , he

57:58

was from Mexico and he was a hustler

58:00

and he was like six feet tall and

58:02

he was just , he was all about making his money . But

58:06

he wouldn't really show me anything , he wouldn't train me

58:08

anything , he was just like you follow , you follow . But

58:13

I met , like all

58:16

the people that worked there , big Tony

58:18

. We called him Big Tony because he has a son

58:20

named Tony . His name

58:22

was actually Anthony Filetta . So Big

58:24

Tony is Anthony Filetta the third and

58:26

little Tony is Anthony Filetta the

58:28

fourth . So I met him

58:31

. And then the lady that ran the office

58:33

, boo , she was Tony's

58:35

aunt . It's like a movie Boo

58:37

. Well , her name was Cosette

58:39

but they called her Boo . But

58:43

the food was amazing , it

58:45

was off the charts .

58:47

Making me want some right now .

58:49

Oh , I can't even eat Italian anymore

58:51

. I mean , you know that even

58:53

that nice place you like to go , it's not . There's

58:55

nothing like Leonardo's . I

58:58

mean , tony ruined Italian for

59:00

me .

59:00

Well if they had a restaurant . Was it Mama Connie

59:02

? Yes , Coming in with the recipes

59:05

and making sure everyone was doing it right ? She was handling

59:07

her business .

59:07

Yeah , that's awesome , but Tony cooked too . You

59:10

know he stayed back there , but

59:12

he was . He was just a character

59:14

Like he was . There's nobody else like

59:17

him . He was full

59:19

of life , he was a storyteller

59:22

, he liked to tell stories and

59:26

you know , you know how you teach me

59:28

about hyperbalizing and

59:30

you know exaggerating . You say

59:32

that he was like that times

59:34

10 . Like everything was more . Wow

59:36

, he did . But he had

59:38

a gift Like he made people feel

59:41

special , like the customers . He

59:43

would go out and go around to every table

59:45

and talk to him with his , with his apron

59:47

on , and he loved it . He loved

59:49

everything about the business . He loved making

59:51

people feel special . He loved telling stories and

59:55

he had this idea of the experience

59:57

that we needed to provide for

59:59

people coming into eat . But

1:00:03

when we didn't have a musician for a night

1:00:05

, he wanted live music . So I

1:00:07

had this thing was called a midi file and

1:00:09

it was a little . You would put a floppy

1:00:11

disc in and it would play whatever

1:00:13

you put on it . So he was sitting in his

1:00:15

office and and search midi files

1:00:17

and download them on a disc and he would go out

1:00:20

and push the midi file into the

1:00:22

piano and then he would sit there

1:00:24

like he was playing and

1:00:27

it was the funniest thing . But people really thought

1:00:30

that he was playing the piano , like

1:00:32

they really thought that Tony was playing

1:00:34

piano . And . I

1:00:36

mean I had I would be waiting on tables and people

1:00:38

would say , um , tony is just

1:00:40

so talented . I was like , yeah .

1:00:43

So he let them believe that he was playing

1:00:46

, which is funny for you , because we

1:00:48

all knew you're just the opposite , though , like we

1:00:50

have noted this episode

1:00:53

and last about how you hate like line

1:00:55

and let's be real and don't cover things up

1:00:57

. And so you just let that

1:00:59

go .

1:01:00

It was cute , it was funny

1:01:02

and it was . It was kind of what , if you knew

1:01:05

him , it made him him because

1:01:07

he wasn't doing it , he wasn't

1:01:09

trying to be deceptive , he just knew that people needed

1:01:11

an experience , and that was what made Leonardo

1:01:14

special Right

1:01:16

.

1:01:16

But for you , I mean , it's

1:01:18

kind of seems like that was the first time you really

1:01:20

experienced that .

1:01:22

Well , things , something happened with him . He became

1:01:24

. He became like a father

1:01:26

to me and I never thought he was my father

1:01:28

. You know , I never thought like , but

1:01:30

he , he filled a role . You know , steve

1:01:33

filled a big role , but then he filled a big like

1:01:35

a daily role of the things that

1:01:37

he just , but also I

1:01:40

would do things with him that other people wouldn't do

1:01:42

, like Dana and Tony

1:01:44

and his older daughter , michelle I didn't

1:01:46

get to know her until later because she wasn't really

1:01:48

part of the business . Then he would

1:01:50

want to go do stuff like let's go to Bahama

1:01:52

breeze at 11 o'clock . It

1:01:56

was a restaurant , I don't know . It was

1:01:58

a big , like a Caribbean

1:02:00

. I mean it's fun to go eat you know

1:02:02

this fish or you know it was like a , it

1:02:05

was like Caribbean food . So

1:02:08

he would want to do these

1:02:10

things that you

1:02:12

know nobody wanted to do them with him , and

1:02:14

so he would ask me and I would say yes , cause I I

1:02:16

didn't . I wasn't like trying to suck up to him . I

1:02:18

really want to go , let's go to Bahama breeze . You were straight out of prison

1:02:21

. You're like , yeah , let's go to Bahama breeze

1:02:23

. But he did so many things for me

1:02:25

. He took me to my

1:02:27

first Alabama game at Legion Field and

1:02:29

I believe that was the last Alabama game

1:02:31

was ever played at Legion Field . Oh wow , he

1:02:34

was so excited about Alabama football

1:02:36

. He was a huge Alabama fan for our

1:02:38

international listeners .

1:02:40

Alabama is a college football team

1:02:42

and they're the best in the country and have been for several

1:02:44

years in the world .

1:02:48

He took me on so many like first . Like

1:02:50

he took me to my first Alabama game . He

1:02:53

, uh , I say he bought me my

1:02:55

first suit . But when I said that before

1:02:57

somebody out that that lady that went

1:02:59

to World Victory Church was like I bought your first suit

1:03:01

, but like he bought me the first suit I wanted , like

1:03:05

I still have it , I have a suit that he bought

1:03:07

me . Like he taught me that you know , you don't have to

1:03:09

have a suit that matches , you just buy a sport coat

1:03:11

, you buy pants , you buy a shirt and different ties . Like

1:03:13

you don't have to be all matchy match . Like he taught me how

1:03:15

to dress , yeah , um

1:03:17

, but he was taking me to a wedding . The one

1:03:20

of the Bruno's sons was getting married

1:03:22

and he took me to the to the way

1:03:24

as a big . Like you know , it was like Prince Harry

1:03:26

getting married , like it was crazy

1:03:28

. And the Alabama world , yeah

1:03:31

. But he also , uh , he helped me buy

1:03:33

my first house Around

1:03:36

the beginning of 2005, . I began

1:03:38

the process of opening my own business and

1:03:41

the girl came home and we got together

1:03:43

and so I really

1:03:45

thought that I had everything that ever wanted

1:03:47

, everything ever dreamed of , and

1:03:49

I remember , uh

1:03:52

, one night during this time , like I

1:03:54

had a dream and I was sitting at

1:03:56

the head of the table and

1:03:58

like Sean was there and Steve and

1:04:00

his family and my mom , and it

1:04:02

was like in

1:04:04

the dream . We were like at a table but we were

1:04:07

in my restaurant and it was

1:04:09

like I woke up , just so full

1:04:11

of hope , like everything that ever wanted

1:04:13

. Every dream is coming true . It's

1:04:15

crazy .

1:04:18

So what we're going to do is this episode , which

1:04:20

I don't know why I find this so exciting to talk

1:04:22

about .

1:04:23

I'm kind of I won't even talk about

1:04:25

it If you don't want me to .

1:04:26

You know what I mean . No , I want you to . I feel like

1:04:28

I mean this is the most interesting

1:04:30

episode so far , that we're going to be just

1:04:32

talking about Shawna and that relationship

1:04:34

.

1:04:36

Well , in my mind , in my mind , she

1:04:38

was supposed to marry me and

1:04:41

somehow that got stolen from me and

1:04:44

but now it was . It was Jesus

1:04:46

putting it all back together the way it was supposed to be , and

1:04:49

it was a . It was an exciting time , you

1:04:52

know , and I did . I did fall in love with her . I mean , it

1:04:54

wasn't .

1:04:54

I can't imagine that the you

1:04:56

know she's moved in

1:04:58

with Tonya and Jeremy and then you

1:05:01

were already there over there . I'm just , I mean , I

1:05:03

can think like young and love , like the thrill

1:05:05

of like , oh , we're going to see him . You

1:05:08

know like it is an exciting

1:05:10

feeling . I

1:05:13

feel like I was winning if I was her . I'm

1:05:15

getting flowers as big as my cubicle at work , going

1:05:17

to dinner , getting $5,000 , settling accounts

1:05:20

. I'd be like mama is

1:05:22

in the game .

1:05:24

Okay , but that was where the

1:05:26

for lack of better words , the shit

1:05:28

hit the fan . Okay , After that

1:05:30

, how the shit ?

1:05:30

hit the fan .

1:05:34

So I'm just on top of the world heading

1:05:36

back , you know , doing my thing , and I get a call

1:05:38

from Steve and he was

1:05:41

very harsh with me . So I was like what's

1:05:43

up ? And I was telling him about the dishwasher and all things

1:05:46

and he said I

1:05:49

have to call you , I had to confront you , I have to

1:05:51

confront your behavior . And I said what

1:05:54

behavior ? And he was like what

1:05:57

are you doing with Sean ? I has to stop . This has

1:05:59

to stop . You're in sin . And I was

1:06:01

like no , I'm not

1:06:03

. And he's like she's married and you're sending

1:06:05

the flowers . And so he had found

1:06:08

out I sent her flowers and he went on a deep investigation

1:06:10

of what we were doing , like asking Tony

1:06:12

and Jeremy , asking people , asking Sean . He

1:06:15

found out we've been going to lunch and you

1:06:17

know I've been hanging out over there . So

1:06:19

he told me that I was sinning and

1:06:21

I was like I hadn't . I mean sin is

1:06:23

like having sex , I haven't done anything . I mean I've been kissed

1:06:25

her , I haven't done anything

1:06:28

. And he commanded me to

1:06:30

stay away from her .

1:06:32

That's not good , commanding you to not

1:06:34

do something or do something .

1:06:36

Well , I had a level of respect for him

1:06:38

, though , at that time , where

1:06:40

he was like a father to me , but

1:06:42

he was also my pastor and

1:06:45

now I was just getting twisted because now he was my business

1:06:47

partner too . So it

1:06:49

was weird , but I did . I always had

1:06:52

a level of respect for him . I listened to him . I

1:06:54

probably listened to him more than I've ever listened to anybody .

1:06:56

So what was your thought then on

1:06:58

the phone ? What was your first thought when he

1:07:00

commanded you use that word to

1:07:03

stay away from her ?

1:07:04

I shamed like I was , just cause

1:07:07

he said I was a sinner , you're in sin

1:07:09

, oh you felt ashamed .

1:07:10

That was , he made you angry .

1:07:12

Not it for it did later on . But no , in the

1:07:14

beginning I was ashamed and

1:07:17

I was confused , cause I was like y'all are pushing

1:07:19

this , y'all were pushing this from day to day

1:07:21

. She got here Like y'all were , like

1:07:24

even her mom . I felt

1:07:26

like they were pushing it , like they were . I

1:07:29

have a friend , nelson , that was the worship leader , grace

1:07:32

and truth . He was on the elders cause

1:07:34

, like in that kind of church , the elders

1:07:36

, like with the pastor , run the

1:07:38

church . And he called me

1:07:40

and he said Darryl has put a complaint

1:07:42

against you to the elders and

1:07:44

what does that even mean ? Like

1:07:46

they're going to like talk about you and see

1:07:48

how to punish you or whatever . I don't know what

1:07:50

they do . I don't know how to punish you . Well

1:07:54

, I don't know what would have happened . But Nelson

1:07:56

called me and I said what do you want me to

1:07:58

do ? I said we're not

1:08:00

. It's not like we're having sex or anything like that

1:08:02

. And he's like I know and I know you and I

1:08:04

know her . He said but I think you

1:08:06

need to show up and

1:08:09

speak for you . I don't like this idea of

1:08:11

them like bringing a case against you and making a

1:08:13

big thing out of it . And

1:08:15

so I went , okay .

1:08:16

I have to pause and say those . I

1:08:18

got . Courtroom Literally sounds like historical

1:08:20

times , like when the church is bringing

1:08:22

a case against you . Yeah , I

1:08:25

mean , I kind of have a hard time with that . Now . I don't

1:08:27

know a lot about it and I'm not trying

1:08:29

not to judge , but at the same time it just feels very

1:08:32

like what

1:08:34

can they do to you ?

1:08:38

I was getting myself into a situation

1:08:40

that I didn't see coming later

1:08:42

on . Yeah , it would be like that . Okay , I

1:08:46

think I was trying to find something , but in the beginning I did not think that

1:08:48

. But then , after they said

1:08:50

yes and we started moving the ball forward

1:08:52

, I sat down and had a meeting with Steve at

1:08:55

his house and that was my first like

1:08:57

red flag , because his

1:08:59

did . You know , it was a red flag at the

1:09:01

time . I did , but I didn't

1:09:03

. I thought maybe I was just being scared

1:09:05

or you know , trying to find a reason not to move forward

1:09:07

.

1:09:07

Right yeah .

1:09:10

But the red flag was just the way that he talked to me , like he

1:09:12

was very like , forceful with me , like just

1:09:15

not in any way he'd ever talked to me before

1:09:17

. I

1:09:19

got a call from the White House and

1:09:23

it was a voicemail .

1:09:25

Yeah , never know , do you ?

1:09:27

crazy . It was a voicemail

1:09:29

on my cell phone when I was

1:09:31

at work . And

1:09:34

it freaked me out and it was like this is

1:09:36

so and so , calling from the White House . We

1:09:38

got your president Bush , got your letter , and

1:09:41

so I call back . We

1:09:44

had a little chat and it wasn't like the Oval

1:09:46

Office , it was like somebody you know he

1:09:48

probably still he probably never read

1:09:51

the letter , but they , you know it's that . You know

1:09:53

the White House has got hundreds of people that worked

1:09:55

there . But whatever it was , it tugged

1:09:57

on the heartstrings Right and

1:09:59

they got back with me and she told

1:10:01

me that I needed to go through the small business

1:10:03

administration . And I didn't know what

1:10:05

that was and but lucky

1:10:08

for me that there was the chapter for North

1:10:10

Alabama was in Birmingham , so

1:10:12

she sat me up and meeting with

1:10:14

the small business administration . It's in

1:10:16

a section in Homewood , right outside

1:10:18

of Birmingham .

1:10:21

Yeah , it wasn't good . So I mean I'm asking you

1:10:23

, do you think that was the big thing , that kind of like

1:10:25

the whole thing .

1:10:27

The whole thing was bad .

1:10:28

Yeah .

1:10:28

The whole thing was bad . Then you had the stuff

1:10:30

with Sean going on . Steve's attitude

1:10:32

kind of changed towards me because we had a team

1:10:35

. Four of us would meet once a week and

1:10:37

plan what we were doing that week , you know , to keep

1:10:39

the ball moving forward . And

1:10:42

at the time that all the stuff started

1:10:44

happening with Sean and then , if you remember

1:10:46

from the last episode , I canceled them yeah

1:10:48

, I also put the

1:10:50

brakes on this . I was like I'm not doing this , this

1:10:52

is crap . I'm not getting sucked into this , I'm

1:10:54

not getting stuck in this , I'm going to figure

1:10:56

out . I got to figure out a way to get out of it , so I put the

1:10:58

brakes on it .

1:10:59

But the reality is you all , you already really

1:11:01

felt stuck .

1:11:03

I was stuck . I was stuck in

1:11:05

this . I put the brakes on it for like

1:11:07

two or three months , like I didn't even try

1:11:10

to meet , like I don't want to meet right now

1:11:12

. You know I'm going to talk about . So during

1:11:15

that process Steve kind of took the reins

1:11:17

from me for that . So now

1:11:19

I had Jeremy like doing

1:11:21

a hostile takeover of the process of

1:11:23

the contract and then Steve

1:11:25

doing like a gentle you know , I'm just going

1:11:28

to ease in here and take over because James can't handle

1:11:30

this kind of deal . So

1:11:32

that just bothered

1:11:34

me even more , because now I feel like you

1:11:37

know , like like they're controlling

1:11:39

me and I didn't like that . I hated every

1:11:41

part of it .

1:11:43

And you were the prison project . It was a disaster

1:11:46

. Now I shouldn't say that , but okay , so

1:11:48

it wasn't a happy day for me ?

1:11:49

Well , it wasn't a happy day . No , it was an awful

1:11:52

day .

1:11:52

So did a lot of people come .

1:11:56

Hey guys , hang tight , we'll be right back

1:11:59

.

1:12:01

Hey , it's Pat Flynn here , host of the award-winning podcast

1:12:03

, the Smart Passive Income podcast , which was

1:12:05

created to help you learn how to become an entrepreneur

1:12:08

In the simplest way too . You know , entrepreneurship

1:12:10

can be very difficult . I like to simplify

1:12:12

things . I interview people like Josh Hall

1:12:15

and Shane and Jocelyn Samms and

1:12:17

Maria Fela . Who are they ? Well

1:12:20

, they're people just like you , people who have taken

1:12:22

action after listening to the show and have built

1:12:24

a business that has changed their lives . I'd

1:12:26

love to share an episode with you that I think

1:12:28

will inspire you to get started too . Check

1:12:31

out the link in the description or go to smartpassiveincomecom

1:12:33

To

1:12:35

get inspired , get what you need to get started

1:12:38

and change your life . You got

1:12:40

this , and thank you .

1:12:44

Yeah , actually the news came . The team did

1:12:47

a news story . Well , joe Brumbot

1:12:49

from Shepherds Fold called me the day we opened early

1:12:52

that morning and he said I

1:12:54

have a contact , a friend at Fox Six

1:12:56

that wants to come and do a new story on Chiris

1:12:58

. And I said really

1:13:00

, and he's like , yeah , they want to do it today

1:13:02

, on opening day . So I said

1:13:04

, well , awesome

1:13:06

. And he said , well , they want to tell your story . And

1:13:09

I was like , okay , I'm fine

1:13:11

with that . Up until that time , my

1:13:13

story had not been like public . They

1:13:15

made my story public that day

1:13:18

. For me it was awful , so I just wanted

1:13:21

to throw up . The whole time . It

1:13:24

was like I had a premonition that I've gotten myself

1:13:26

into something that's going to be a disaster and

1:13:28

it was something that I don't want to be in . I don't want

1:13:31

to be controlled by other

1:13:33

people .

1:13:34

So to me that's really sad . I mean

1:13:36

, what would you say , like for other people

1:13:39

, like what was the biggest takeaway

1:13:41

? Like what's the lesson ? You feel like you

1:13:43

learned and you would want someone else to know ?

1:13:45

That you don't do it . You don't do it at

1:13:48

all costs . Like you don't move into something

1:13:50

, you don't push

1:13:52

through something at all costs and give up

1:13:54

your freedoms , give up . I made

1:13:56

a lot of concessions during that time , things

1:13:59

that I would never do again .

1:14:01

Like .

1:14:01

I would never , ever even come close

1:14:03

to getting involved in a situation like that again . But

1:14:08

once you get in , you're in . It

1:14:13

was one of those days where everything was bothering me and I

1:14:15

was just trying I got to get out of here . I got to get out

1:14:17

of here , get out of this . I can't do this

1:14:19

. And there was a car outside

1:14:22

that kept circling the building and

1:14:24

Jeremy he was . He's kind

1:14:26

of like Royal , he's very my son , royal . He's

1:14:29

very aware , he pays attention to everything

1:14:31

and he would call attention to everything . He

1:14:34

was like why does this car keep circling ? And

1:14:37

I said it don't matter , we're closed . So who

1:14:39

cares ? Like , why do you even care ? And

1:14:42

a car pulled up to the front . It was just a regular

1:14:44

car and his two guys jumped

1:14:46

out and they came to the front door and

1:14:49

they said we need to see James

1:14:51

Keith Jones . And

1:14:54

I said that's me . What's up ? And

1:14:57

they were like can you

1:14:59

? Can you step outside ? And

1:15:02

I said sure , I mean I thought

1:15:04

it was like a customer or something . So

1:15:06

I stepped outside and he said I'm

1:15:08

so and so , with the US Marshals , I have a warrant for

1:15:10

your arrest . And

1:15:13

I thought it was a joke . I mean , I thought , I

1:15:15

thought it was a joke . He said I have a warrant for your arrest

1:15:18

and I said okay

1:15:20

, ha ha ha , because I had a friend

1:15:22

, paul Wendorf , who's actually elder at Grayson

1:15:25

Truth . He was a Hoover police

1:15:27

officer Like he's an FBI . Now

1:15:29

he's moved up . You know he's awesome . Up

1:15:31

and out , but he would play jokes

1:15:33

on people with his police car . Like

1:15:37

maybe I shouldn't be telling that , but he was like pull people

1:15:39

over , Like just as a funny you know like friends

1:15:42

like people , he can play with that like . So I

1:15:44

thought it was Paul Wendorf playing a joke on me . I

1:15:46

really did . And I was like okay , Terrible

1:15:49

joke . I

1:15:51

was like , okay , ha , but

1:15:53

they turned me around and put handcuffs

1:15:55

, handcuffed me behind my back

1:15:57

and then reached down and put handcuffs on my

1:15:59

feet and I was like , oh

1:16:01

shit , like what's happening here ? And

1:16:04

this is a real arrest . They arrested

1:16:06

me and I didn't know what fun and understand

1:16:08

what's happened . I was like I know I ain't , I ain't did no crime

1:16:11

, you know

1:16:13

what's happening . And then I looked back

1:16:15

and there was Lenora and Jeremy and Wanda

1:16:17

and they were looking at me like I

1:16:20

did something wrong and I was like I don't know

1:16:22

, I don't know what this is .

1:16:23

That is insane . So you're standing outside

1:16:25

your restaurant and all this

1:16:28

and they are putting you

1:16:30

under arrest .

1:16:31

They arrested me , they handcuffed your

1:16:33

hands and feet and threw me in the back of the car and

1:16:35

sped away . What it

1:16:38

was , I don't know

1:16:40

it was . It was very traumatic . And

1:16:44

they said come out . And they said

1:16:47

go in this little thing

1:16:49

where you talk through the glass , and

1:16:51

there was a man sitting there that I didn't know and never

1:16:53

seen him , and he said

1:16:55

I need you to sign these papers . I

1:16:57

need you to not say a word . I

1:16:59

need you to sign these papers and

1:17:01

then they're going to release you . You're going

1:17:04

to walk out into the bay , You're going to take a right

1:17:06

, You're going to walk straight out and you're going to see

1:17:08

a red Bronco . I need

1:17:10

you to get in the red Bronco .

1:17:13

This is like a freaking movie . Why aren't

1:17:15

we doing this ? It was crazy . This

1:17:18

should be an episode by itself .

1:17:19

It was crazy . So I was like but I was

1:17:21

still half asleep . I was like , okay , I'm

1:17:24

a name , walk out , I get in

1:17:26

the car with him .

1:17:27

Who does that ?

1:17:29

I get in the car . No , look , he looks over at me

1:17:31

and he said I don't know you , I

1:17:33

don't know why the hell I'm doing this . And

1:17:36

I said can we pause ? What

1:17:39

are we doing ? What's happening ? Who

1:17:41

are you and what the hell are you actually ?

1:17:42

doing .

1:17:43

He said I'm a bell bondsman and

1:17:46

I've never done this before and I honestly

1:17:48

I don't know why I'm doing this , but

1:17:51

I've got to go to Troy and

1:17:54

so I thought it would be nice . Your friends are coming

1:17:56

to pick you up , well okay okay , okay , stop

1:17:58

. I'm going to Troy . I'm just going to take you to Troy

1:18:00

. We'll meet them there .

1:18:02

How did this guy even know about you in the jail ?

1:18:04

Because they called him bonding Okay , I

1:18:07

think it was Mike Farrell like he had

1:18:09

been in prison . He had , you know , he had

1:18:11

a real connection .

1:18:12

Okay , so they had called this connection

1:18:14

no , just a bondsman .

1:18:16

A bondsman . So for some reason this guy felt compelled

1:18:18

to do all this weird stuff for me , that he didn't

1:18:20

know what he was doing . But then he looked at me

1:18:22

and was like if you try anything stupid ? And

1:18:24

I was like what are you ? I'm not whatever

1:18:26

, you know whatever . So we drive

1:18:28

to Troy . Wait , hold on , hold on . I feel like

1:18:30

this is crazy .

1:18:33

I mean , I'm a very fast processor and I

1:18:35

feel like I need to hear this again .

1:18:37

So he said you needed

1:18:39

to that right then . And

1:18:41

there he was bonding you out . I

1:18:43

was already out .

1:18:44

I was sitting in his car . No

1:18:46

, we were driving away .

1:18:47

No , no , no , I was not in jail anymore . I'm talking

1:18:50

about when you went to the glass .

1:18:52

I didn't know what he was doing . Okay so he looked

1:18:54

at me . He said I'm going to pass

1:18:56

this to you . You need to sign this

1:18:58

paper and I need you to not

1:19:00

speak a word about anything

1:19:03

. I just need you to walk out . You

1:19:05

weren't skeptical . I didn't know what to do

1:19:07

. I was scared , but I

1:19:09

was like what is happening ? Like it didn't . And

1:19:11

it was early in the morning and I knew it didn't make any

1:19:13

sense Like four hours to

1:19:15

get from Birmingham to Tokyo .

1:19:17

So you signed the papers , I signed the papers

1:19:19

and then you immediately walked out . They set

1:19:21

me free , they'd let me out , and

1:19:23

then you didn't follow this instructions . I walked out

1:19:25

To the right Red Bronco . He said to the right , I walked out

1:19:27

.

1:19:27

There was a Red Bronco . I jumped in the Red Bronco

1:19:29

and we're on the highway . I

1:19:31

feel like this is like an OJ scene

1:19:33

. It was weird . So

1:19:36

then we're headed to Troy . No , I guess worse it

1:19:38

gets weird . So we

1:19:40

get to Troy . You're headed to Troy and

1:19:43

it's around like eight like this , still early in

1:19:45

the morning .

1:19:46

For all people listening .

1:19:48

I have never heard this story to say

1:19:50

now it was early in the morning Like nothing was

1:19:52

happening . It was early . He

1:19:55

pulls into a Kentucky fried chicken . That

1:19:57

was closed , so we're the only

1:19:59

people in the parking lot and I'm looking around

1:20:02

like and

1:20:04

he starts to be like . I'm finna die

1:20:06

. He starts smoking a cigarette and I was

1:20:08

like , can I have a cigarette ? I

1:20:11

need to do some . So we're

1:20:13

sitting there Maybe

1:20:15

10 , 15 , 20 minutes . He's not talking to

1:20:17

me . He's like . He's like weirded

1:20:20

out , like what am I doing ? Like I think he's

1:20:22

nervous because you know he can trouble for that

1:20:24

.

1:20:25

For what ? I don't understand

1:20:27

. If he's a bondsman and he

1:20:29

bonded you out , what can he get in trouble for ?

1:20:31

He's supposed to bond me out when they pay . They hadn't

1:20:33

even paid the bond . They hadn't paid the bond

1:20:35

. I mean I was not . I mean it

1:20:37

was just weird . But and he kept saying I don't

1:20:39

know why I'm doing this . And I was like I

1:20:41

don't know why he keeps saying that to me . I don't know what to

1:20:43

tell you .

1:20:44

I don't even know what you're doing .

1:20:46

So he , steve

1:20:49

and Mike Farrell , pull

1:20:51

up in the Kentucky Fried Chicken Park a lot

1:20:53

, and so there's two cars there

1:20:55

, the Red Bronco , and they're

1:20:58

early in the morning , it's like eight o'clock . They

1:21:01

get out and they count out cash

1:21:03

thousand dollars to him because I had a $10,000

1:21:06

bond and just counting out $100 bills

1:21:08

to him that my mom had gave him the money . But

1:21:11

they're counting the money

1:21:13

out to him and to me it looked like

1:21:15

a drug deal , like I was

1:21:17

like if I was watching this , like

1:21:20

if I was like standing

1:21:22

on the side of the road watching this happening , I

1:21:25

would think they're getting crack or heroin

1:21:27

or something . It's happening . I

1:21:31

never had to go to court and I never had to do anything , but

1:21:33

it was very traumatic . But

1:21:35

at the same time it

1:21:37

made my faith , it increased my faith , like

1:21:40

I understood , like God is for

1:21:42

me . If he can , let

1:21:44

them come and arrest me and take

1:21:47

me four hours away and get

1:21:49

me back in time to cook

1:21:51

lunch the next day .

1:21:52

And you probably got more sleep than you would have ever

1:21:54

gotten .

1:21:54

I did Well . Wanda was the best

1:21:57

one during that time . She was

1:21:59

my best person . She

1:22:01

was like we're wringing our hands , stressed

1:22:03

out , going crazy , and

1:22:05

you were over there sleeping . I don't know what I'm

1:22:08

saying . Oh , that's great , it

1:22:10

was neat , so , but after that it was neat . No

1:22:14

, I mean it wasn't neat what happened , but

1:22:16

it was neat the way that God's

1:22:19

hand was on that . There was no way

1:22:21

that could have . And then , you

1:22:23

know , that night , when I went in at Leonardo's and all those

1:22:25

lawyers were there and telling all they were like what

1:22:29

the hell ? Disbelief , and I was just

1:22:31

like I don't know what to tell you . I'm

1:22:33

here , you know

1:22:35

. I was like , oh , let me go get Dino , he's Greek

1:22:37

. And I was like I thought y'all said one , no Greek

1:22:40

people here . Like what's happening

1:22:42

here ? But she went and got the guy that was the

1:22:44

manager of the cafe . He came

1:22:46

out , he was a little short guy , probably in his

1:22:48

, maybe in his sixties , had

1:22:50

had like salt and pepper hair , very

1:22:52

nice , and he wanted to know

1:22:54

my story . He started asking me questions . So

1:22:57

I pulled everything out and

1:22:59

told him the whole story , showed him

1:23:01

everything that I had , and he

1:23:04

wanted to help me . You could tell he wanted

1:23:06

to , but he didn't know like how to , right

1:23:08

, so I

1:23:10

think we sat there for about 10 or 15 minutes . He

1:23:13

came back with another guy and

1:23:15

this guy did not look like a . You know what

1:23:17

you would think a typical Greek person looked

1:23:19

like . He was like six foot

1:23:21

three . I mean , he was very tall

1:23:23

, blonde headed , had dark skin

1:23:25

and like green eyes . But he didn't . He

1:23:28

didn't look Greek to me , but when

1:23:30

he started talking he talked to Greek because

1:23:32

he you know his , his English was broken , yeah

1:23:34

, so he actually sat down on

1:23:36

the table with us and started asking me questions . I

1:23:39

think our conversation lasted about four

1:23:41

minutes and he said do you don't

1:23:43

know his last name ? And I said no

1:23:45

, and he said this

1:23:48

is like a needle in a haystack If you

1:23:50

don't have a , if you don't have a name , you have nothing

1:23:52

. You have nothing . And

1:23:54

he like got up and left like stomped off

1:23:56

, and he turned around and said you don't have a name , you have nothing

1:23:59

. And you're like

1:24:01

wow , you're kind of aggressive . Well , he , he

1:24:03

was just being blunt , like don't

1:24:05

waste my time , basically what

1:24:07

he's saying . But Sean picked up the

1:24:09

paper that I had in the folder and

1:24:11

she yelled out to him he

1:24:14

won a cutlass in a poker

1:24:17

game , in a card game , and the guy stopped

1:24:19

like froze and

1:24:21

he flipped around , he looked at me and he said

1:24:24

it was red cutlass . And

1:24:27

I said I think so . And

1:24:30

he came running back and he sat down

1:24:32

in front of me and he told me who my , my

1:24:34

father was . And

1:24:36

it was crazy , it

1:24:38

was just crazy . And

1:24:41

Derek was like hold up , let me get this right

1:24:43

. So James got

1:24:45

in the car and drove across America

1:24:47

to Denver , colorado

1:24:50

, and he didn't even have the last name

1:24:52

and he found his father Like

1:24:58

how did this have ? This is a testimony , a

1:25:01

testimony . And

1:25:04

it was in the middle of the lunch rush

1:25:06

, and the lunch rush of cars

1:25:08

was crazy because it was like everybody came

1:25:10

in at one time and you know you're cooking and doing

1:25:12

all the things , and Lenore came

1:25:14

to the back and said James , you have a phone

1:25:16

call . And I said I can't talk on the phone , I'm

1:25:18

cooking . And she said I think you're going

1:25:20

to want to take this call . And I said I think

1:25:23

you're going to want to take a message .

1:25:25

And she said that sounds like you .

1:25:27

She said you're going to want

1:25:29

to take this call . It's coming in from Greece

1:25:31

and I don't know

1:25:33

. I almost

1:25:35

felt like I almost passed out and I took the phone and

1:25:37

I was looking at it was on hold , but it was like a

1:25:39

number with like 75 numbers

1:25:41

. I had never seen a number like

1:25:43

that before and

1:25:46

I went in my office and I locked the

1:25:48

door and I said , hello

1:25:51

, this is James . And he said , hello

1:25:53

, james , this is your father

1:25:56

. And he's like

1:25:58

hollering in the phone . And then I'm like

1:26:00

I'm trying to talk , I'm like did

1:26:02

you cry at that time ? I did . It was

1:26:04

very emotional . Well

1:26:08

, hey guys , we hope you enjoyed the best of season

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three and can't wait to

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see you next week for season four .

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. Crossfit

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Mephobia is owned and run by Hayden Setzer . Hayden

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has a degree in exercise science and wellness

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with a minor in coaching . She's been a personal

1:30:54

trainer for eight years , as well as a CrossFit

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coach for six years .

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Hayden is a CrossFit Level 2 certified and

1:30:59

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So she don't just teach you how to work out , she can teach you

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how to eat right too . So you can be the best

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version of yourself . Crossfit Mephobia classes

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are all one hour long , start to finish . They

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literally have classes any day or time that fits

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your skin .

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We love Hayden and there is not a better time

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than the fall to step back into a routine

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.

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They also have open gym times . You can come and do

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your own thing , and coaches are always available

1:31:22

there for you , if you need Right .

1:31:24

Hayden , help you be the best version of you .

1:31:25

CrossFit Mephobia is located at 222

1:31:27

Decatur Highway in Gardendale , Alabama

1:31:30

. Email CrossFitMephobiaInfo

1:31:32

at gmailcom , call or text 256-303-1873

1:31:37

, or check her out on Facebook and Instagram . Crossfit

1:31:39

Mephobia .