From Addiction to Redemption - How to Live With No Doubt - D Arlando Fortune : 138

D. Arlando Fortune shares his compelling journey of internal conflicts that led him to lead a double life of public success and private struggles, as well as the humbling moments that led him to embrace his faith and higher purpose. From being a top student and baseball team captain to battling addiction and ultimately finding his purpose, he turned his setbacks into stepping stones and reshaped his outlook on life.
Fortune is a self-publishing strategist, bestselling author, and founder of No Doubt Nation. He created the SIGNATURE Book Formula and the #OneBookAway Movement. Fortune also hosts the Wealthy Author Podcast, teaching entrepreneurs and speakers how to write, publish, and monetize their books.
He opens up about how the birth of his daughter acted as a pivotal moment in his recovery and discusses the strategies he's using to equip his children with the tools to make positive life choices, emphasizing the significance of individual personality traits and resilience.
Fortune also shares his spiritual transformation and journey from darkness to becoming an inspiring author. One of his many books is "Unlimited Potential: How to Stop Living with Fear, Doubt, and Uncertainty." His passion for education and community building has driven him to help others unlock their true potential. This episode focuses on the power of redemption, faith, and intentional living.
Let's enjoy his story!

To connect with Fortune: https://fourhourbook.com/
Wealthy Author Podcast

Chapters

• 11:36 Navigating Parenting and Personal Growth
• 14:54 Journey of Humility and Growth
• 22:31 Exploring Faith and Spirituality
• 34:29 The Path to Personal Growth
• 43:16 Building Communities Through Storytelling

Transcript

Daniela SM: 0:01

Hi, I'm Daniela. Welcome to my podcast. Because Everyone has a Story, the place to give ordinary people's stories the chance to be shared and preserved. Our stories become the language of connections. Let's enjoy it, connect and relate because everyone has a story. Late, because everyone has a story. Welcome my guest, darlando Fortune. Fortune is a best-selling author and a self-publishing whiz. He founded no Doubt Nation and created the signature book Formula. Fortune's journey is nothing short from remarkable. He's here to share his transformation from a place of darkness to becoming an author and advocate for intentional living. These episodes dive deep into the power of redemption, faith and living life with purpose. And let me tell you, fortune is an amazing conversationalist. We had such a blast recording this episode. It was truly fun and I am so grateful to him for coming on the podcast, sharing his story, being open and vulnerable and bringing plenty of humor to our conversation. Let's enjoy his story. Welcome, fortune, to the show.

D Arlando Fortune: 1:16

Hello, hello, thanks for having me.

Daniela SM: 1:19

I know I am excited that you're here. You have an awesome story to share.

D Arlando Fortune: 1:24

Yeah, god has been real good to me. Got a lot of things to share with people because of what has happened in my life.

Daniela SM: 1:31

Good, so is that why you want to share your story?

D Arlando Fortune: 1:33

Oh, absolutely. I was challenged several years ago and that that story would lead me to inspiring other people to become better than who they currently are, because it's already in them.

Daniela SM: 1:43

Great. So when does your story start?

D Arlando Fortune: 1:44

better than who they currently are because it's already in them Great. So when does your story start? My story actually starts when I first started having a little extra extracurricular activities in high school. So I played baseball my entire life, so it was my thing that's going to help me get into college. But my junior year I discovered marijuana and I started enjoying marijuana, when I wasn't supposed to be enjoying marijuana Of course I wasn't supposed to at 16 years old. At that point I started doing things that I didn't need to be doing. I was accelerated classes, all accelerated classes. So I was always a very good student and I'm also like captain of my team. But I also had this other life where I was starting to build, where I was partying and having fun Nothing crazy, but I was experimenting.

Daniela SM: 2:32

And why do you think you liked it so much?

D Arlando Fortune: 2:34

Honestly, I don't know Cause, I was the one that was saying my body's a temple. I would never do those things, and I guess the devil took that as a challenge. I don't know. It was like, and the first time I did it was just like that's not that bad, I can handle that. And then it continued to escalate from there.

Daniela SM: 2:53

But do you like it how you were different. You usually acted, or what.

D Arlando Fortune: 2:58

I really don't know what it was. It wasn't like my life was going bad and I needed to avoid it or change my emotions or anything like that. It was more of like this is kind of all right. I like the way this makes me feel I'm not out of my mind, where I don't know what's going on. So I cause I didn't like people with you know the drinking and all of this stuff where people are passing out doing other pills, that stuff. No, but it was like I could do this and still function. I could still talk, have conversations, I could do homework, I do all those things without it affecting what I was doing okay, and so what happened?

Daniela SM: 3:31

you discovered marijuana, so you were still a good student and a captain of your team oh, yes, yes, I still did all those things.

D Arlando Fortune: 3:39

However, my senior year I got into this program called senior Science Seminar, but I only had three classes and then I took a study hall and then my last three periods were Senior Science Seminar. Well, I started skipping Senior Science Seminar and hanging out with my friend, smoking weed, going to McDonald's, eating all types of food and not going to that class. And these people because I was going to an engineering firm to just kind of learn some engineering stuff while I was in high school, because that's the path I wanted to go on and these people had the nerve to call the school and check on me to ask Dwight hasn't been showing up, Is he all right, Is he sick? And when they found out I'd been going to all my classes and just not that one, I got kicked out of the program, which meant I only really had three classes and you needed four classes to be eligible for sports. So here I was, the captain of the team and not eligible to play for the team.

D Arlando Fortune: 4:39

That year my father helped me get into a program through a local community, local college and that gave me that credit. So I didn't even play for half the first half of the year got back in and that should have been enough for me to not go back to using drugs, but it didn't stop me. Later on I came back around to using drugs again. I barely barely got into college because I almost messed up my chances of getting full scholarships. I ended up getting a full scholarship for baseball, but I almost messed those chances up because I was skipping class to go smoke weed.

Daniela SM: 5:08

Your friends were having the same issues, or were you the only one?

D Arlando Fortune: 5:11

My friend that was actually I was smoking with. He was doing a similar thing, but with his family's company, so they weren't calling school asking about him or anything like that, so he never got in trouble.

Daniela SM: 5:23

But he did finish high school and everything.

D Arlando Fortune: 5:26

Oh yes, I graduated with honors and all that. I just missed that one class.

Daniela SM: 5:31

Okay, and so you didn't learn the lesson. And what happened after that?

D Arlando Fortune: 5:34

No, I ended up with this woman, the young woman that I was with. We get engaged my sophomore year. She decides to break it off with me. Her thing was, she said she didn't think I was serious because I didn't marry her soon enough. Okay, so she ended up breaking it off with me and I'm like we're in college, I'm not doing that now, we're doing like afterwards. She wasn't going for it.

D Arlando Fortune: 5:56

That messed up my head. I just who breaks up with me Like? I was like do you know who I am? And I didn't know how to handle it. So I started drinking a whole lot of alcohol and that took me down a whole nother path to where, when I finally graduated from college, I still graduated with honors from college, even though I started smoking and drinking almost every day, and I also still graduated with a chance to go play pro ball. Montreal, I suppose, asked me to come up there to try out for them, to play for them, and I decided that I'll work for the government because I ended up getting a woman pregnant and that whole year after she broke up with me over Christmas break that next year I started experimenting with other things, forgive my language. My New Year's resolution was to be a butthole. That was my New Year's resolution, so I didn't care. I was doing whatever I wanted Experimenting with ecstasy, and ended up getting a woman pregnant. So I have a son because of that.

Daniela SM: 6:48

Pretty good love.

D Arlando Fortune: 6:50

Yeah, I'm not mad about it at all. But I had to decide whether, when I graduated from college, like am I going to take my chances with baseball or am I going to take this good government position, knowing I'm going to have a solid career. So I chose the college career, to which my dad is still pissed off about he's been. Oh, I spent all these years getting you ready for baseball. Then you say no, so I'm working for the government. I'm still drinking, still smoking all the time. Even when we're working for the government, it lands me in trouble again. I get my first driving while intoxicated. That ends up putting me back to Indianapolis because I was in DC at the time.

D Arlando Fortune: 7:25

And when I graduated from college, when I come back here, that evolved even more. I started being the party guy when I was working for restaurants and so forth and then I started becoming the guy who was the facilitator at these parties. So I was the one bringing party favors. Next thing, you know, someone convinced me that it'd be okay for me to try some cocaine and that's when the rails kind of went off. I started going, partying more, started using more, then I started trying it in different forms and then moved on to crack cocaine, and then I started doing all types of things that I had no business doing, until I found myself facing 12 years of prison.

Daniela SM: 8:01

And, at the meantime, this woman who was pregnant it wasn't the girl from high school.

D Arlando Fortune: 8:06

No, that was a whole nother woman.

Daniela SM: 8:08

You were not living with her, so it was like separate Okay, oh, wow.

D Arlando Fortune: 8:12

Uh-huh. Yeah, she was still living here in Indiana, because that happened over the summertime while I was here. She had the child while I was still in college, so I graduated from college and then they stayed here. So I didn't really have as much time with my son until I moved back to Indianapolis and then I started partying more. So I spent less and less time with him and I had to rebuild that relationship once I finally, years later, years later, so in about 2014, I finally started rebuilding that relationship with my son. At that time he was 13 years old and I started rebuilding that relationship with him.

Daniela SM: 8:43

And you went to Yale for 12 years.

D Arlando Fortune: 8:46

No, I did. Through the grace of God, I did not go to prison for 12 years. I was facing 12 years. I ended up only doing nine months, and the reason why I only did nine months is because what had happened was I had like four felonies, all for theft, and all the cases came on at one time, like all in a year timeframe.

D Arlando Fortune: 9:04

I just kept being real stupid and kept getting caught doing the stuff I was doing, cause I was like I don't care, I'm doing what I want, whatever. Until they said, hey, we're going to send you to prison for 12 years. And then I was like wait a minute, I take it back. I take it back. I didn't mean it. The judge saw through my behavior for the last six or seven years at that point that I was a drug addict and so, instead of sending me to prison, they got me into a drug court program which was going to help me to rehabilitate myself, get clean and start changing my life. And that program is what it took nine months for me to get into, because I had to wait for a position to open up for me. Then I was released into that drug court program and that's the beginning of me getting changed in my life in September of 2014.

Daniela SM: 9:50

Okay. And then, all this time, your family, your parents knew that you were doing drugs, doing whatever you wanted.

D Arlando Fortune: 9:57

Yeah, they knew something was wrong and they just didn't know exactly what I was doing. It wasn't until they started seeing the charges for possession of cocaine. Now they started knowing like, oh, that's what you're doing. They never really discussed it with me. I don't know if it was shame or if it was more of like they don't want to acknowledge it or what it was that they didn't want to talk about it and plus, I probably wouldn't have listened anyway at that time. I was doing me, that's all.

Daniela SM: 10:23

I was worried about was me. You have a son. If your son, you notice, will be going through the same as you, what do you think you will have convinced him not to go through the same path as you, Thinking that he's you, like you know, a mini you?

D Arlando Fortune: 10:36

Him seeing what I went through. Hopefully it was a deterrent and also I've told him several, several times that, as I learned, he's five times more likely to become an addict because of me. I said you can't play around with this stuff, you cannot. You want to have a little, some, you know, glass of wine or beer or whatever. It's fine, I get it. But you, the first time you get like truly intoxicated or too high, you might really like it and it's gone, like your. Your whole life's going to change after that and you won't know. Just as I was going to explain to you why it felt so good to you, why you wanted to do it so much more than anyone else, other people get that feeling like I don't like feeling unaware and not knowing what's going on in the world. That doesn't feel right to me. So they don't do it the first time they go to jail. I'm never doing that again. And they stop using drugs and stuff Me, eh, whatever, I can handle it. No, I don't need him to go any down that path.

D Arlando Fortune: 11:36

Now I will say this also part of me changing is that my daughter was born a month before I was released from jail, about a month after I got out, her mother goes back out to the streets. So here I am, trying to figure out how to turn my life around, how to stop using drugs, how to not go, to stop myself from going to prison, and how to be a daddy while raising this little girl. She's two months old at the time, so that was also another part of me. Changing was like I have to be here for my daughter because there's no one else, like there was for my son, there's no one else for my daughter. I had to do it, I had to be here, and that was the turn.

Daniela SM: 12:13

Is your daughter from the same woman?

D Arlando Fortune: 12:15

No.

Daniela SM: 12:16

Okay, so this woman was going on the streets. You're meaning Meaning?

D Arlando Fortune: 12:20

we were out partying together and type stuff and we kind of built a relationship as we were out partying and hanging out together.

Daniela SM: 12:25

Okay, if I tell my kids, don't do it because you can be an addict, I don't know if it will make me more curious to see what it'd be, and so you are always kind of living with a fear. But maybe I should try. I don't know.

D Arlando Fortune: 12:39

It's like a and that's the scary thing, because we don't know. I mean, there's a story I was taught about these two. I don't know how true it is, but it's a good little story Two sons. They were twins. They're the very same in every way. The father was an alcoholic and abusive. Now, years later, one son is very successful, loving father, great family. The other son is just like his father was abusive, alcoholic. And when he asked each of the sons why are they that way, both of them said because of my father.

D Arlando Fortune: 13:11

So I don't know which route she's going to go or my son's going to go at this point, because I really didn't start going off the rails until I was in my mid-twenties. I don't know which way they're going to run. So I try to do both. I try to have like that carrot and a stick, like like I want you to succeed, so focus on these things. These things are distract you. But also like if you go this way, your life's going to be trash and I don't know if I have the patience that my parents have, so you, hopefully your grandparents will have the patience for you. I honestly don't know. So I try to get both, but I don't know which way to go. I'm going to love them either way, no matter what. Yeah, no matter what.

Daniela SM: 13:46

Well, many stories that I have heard through the podcast is mostly yes, they're siblings and one person is resilient and goes through everything and the other person can't, and I feel like this is a matter of personality as well For me. I learned how I want to be because of my dad, and I have learned what I don't want to do because of my mom Both of them have been really good teachers, so I think that that's the way.

Daniela SM: 14:11

I think it's also part of people's personality is what makes you be resilient and be successful or not?

D Arlando Fortune: 14:17

Yes. So if my children decide to go that route, I want it to be because if they do, it's because you chose to go that route, not because I pushed you that way. You weren't taught any different. You didn't have the confidence in yourself, you didn't have the willpower to resist people that presented them when the temptation came to you and you didn't have the right understanding of the circle around you, like those things, and you chose to go that route. Like all right, you chose that path. I want to make sure I give them all the tools right. That's what we're trying to give them all the tools to make the right choices. But at the end of the day, again, it's their choice.

D Arlando Fortune: 14:54

And I have met again. I was the captain of my team, I was in all academics, I was even a peer facilitator. So I worked in the student, in the principal's office. But yeah, I still had this other life, this other me. So why did I need that? I don't know. I just did, I don't know. I guess some part of me liked the idea of being able to get away with it until it consumed me. So it took over my life.

Daniela SM: 15:22

I also seen you as a very cheerful and happy person. If I nasty face you, could it be that like oh, I can do everything. I am, you know, like when you say what nobody breaks up with me, so it feels like that's your, yours.

D Arlando Fortune: 15:36

Yes, there is that too. There's that too. There was the arrogance of like, oh, I could quit. If I needed to stop drinking, I would just stop. It didn't bother me. If I wanted to stop smoking weed, I just stopped. It didn't bother me. But in all the other drugs I'm like I'm not trying that mess. That's uh-uh. But something about this one drug just kept pulling me back where I would still, knowing I have a drug test tomorrow, I would still get high today, knowing that I might go to jail for it. I don't know why it just had that hold on me.

Daniela SM: 16:08

Yeah, do you think that your story have made you more humble? You know the arrogance that you said you had. Have it changed or really is just part of you in a positive way?

D Arlando Fortune: 16:18

Both, both. So there is this. I like the way I think I have the book on the back here, this thing called quiet confidence. There's like a humility to it.

D Arlando Fortune: 16:30

I am very confident, but I know I cannot do it without a power greater than me helping me, Because when I did everything myself, the way I wanted to do it, it found me facing 12 years of prison. 12 years of prison. So clearly I need something stronger and greater than me to help guide me in situations, to help me pull me out of situations that I don't need to put myself into, where I try to do things that I'm not capable of stopping myself from doing. Not only that, but also giving me the strength to be myself, Because even having gone through all those things, I have to.

D Arlando Fortune: 17:07

The humility part is something that's part of me because I didn't do it myself, but also there is the humiliation portion of it where I was again, because of all the things I was doing, I'm supposed to be here. I remember going into a drug dealer's house. I knew him from high school and he's like what are you doing in here? He's like I thought she was going to be the president or CEO of some company by now and I'm like, yeah, I know, but that didn't stop him from selling to me, he still went and sold it to me.

Daniela SM: 17:40

He's a businessman, but so that's what I expected. Yes he's a businessman but so that's what I expected. Yes, this is businessman. Yeah, I was gonna ask you that too, like okay, so I think you have arrogance, you think you're amazing, but it wasn't a moment that you were. You were ashamed of what you were doing it wasn't about other people so much.

D Arlando Fortune: 17:58

I mean, I didn't want people to know that. I didn't necessarily want people knowing that I was fiending and doing all the stuff that I was doing. That was more out of board. Like society frowns upon what I was doing, I was stealing, society frowns upon that right that I was doing. That was bad. Yes, I didn't like that being out there.

D Arlando Fortune: 18:15

Now that I've gotten clean, I definitely share it. It's not humiliating to share it now. I had to heal through that and learn and remember that those lessons helped me become the person I am. It helped me to share with other people going through it that they can come out of it and also to realize that I am more resilient than I'd given myself credit for. However, what was really the humility came from what I believe God was having me, what he wanted me to do, and I was being disobedient. It was in that I knew I was supposed to be changing lives and doing great things in my life, but I kept saying, yeah, god, I'll get to it, I'm going to have some fun, let me do me for a little while longer.

D Arlando Fortune: 18:55

And then he came, he sat me down the first time and that was the. That was a great example that I learned when I was, when I was locked up. This gentleman said that God tries to guide you all the way. He's constantly giving you directions not to go that route. So the first time he came to you you might've been like, hey, you probably shouldn't do that, I didn't listen. The next time he came around he may have said a little out hey, dwight, you probably shouldn't be doing that. The next time he kind of like taps me on my shoulder and tries to get my attention, I'm still like I got it, I got it. And then he kind of shoves me and just trying to shake me a little bit and I'm still. I still didn't listen when I did the first like three months of time. So then he sat me all the way down like boom, sit your butt down and listen.

D Arlando Fortune: 19:36

So when I got sat down in jail for nine months, I finally started listening and I remember I was trying to build my case to get out of there because I was doing all these things. I was helping this inmate and I was going through these programs and trying to make myself look as good. I was leading a Bible study, I was doing about model inmates, right, and I had a whole green folder with all the things that I'd done when I was going in front of the judge. This was about five or six months into my stay, all the things that I'd done when I was going in front of the judge. This was about five or six months into my stay and I remember going in front of the judge ready to present my facts, my evidence of why I should be released. The judge asked the prosecution if they were ready to proceed. No, your honor, we're not. So even though I had all this stuff to present, I never got a chance to present it.

D Arlando Fortune: 20:25

So I go back to the dorm with my little green folder and the people that I was doing Bible study with. So when they come up they're all excited Are you getting out? You're getting out, because they knew I've been doing all these things. They were always hoping for someone to get out Every time you come from court. Hopefully you're getting out. I said no, I'm mad at God.

D Arlando Fortune: 20:43

So I remember going to my prayer closet, which is basically the window that was cut out in the side of the well. My Bible's in there and I'm looking out in the parking lot and having this conversation. God, why am I here? I've done all the things that you told me to do. I did this, that, and I'm doing this over here. Why am I still here? I just remember just staring out the window watching leaves going to just roll through the parking lot, quiet, and I just hear you're not ready.

D Arlando Fortune: 21:13

And for some reason, at that moment I was ready to receive that message, and so I no longer worried about when I was getting out. I needed to just continue working on me and trust that God was going to do for me what I needed to be when I do for me what I need to have done for me when it was time for me to have it, because my timing isn't always the best time for whatever's happening in my life. I want things now, but just like my child, right, I can't give her everything that she wants right now, because I'm more intelligent, I see a longer path, I see a future for her, so I must not give her all the candy she wants right now. I must not give her all the gifts that she wants right now. She must spread them out or tell her no, even though I want to, no, it's not time, she's not ready for that. She hasn't earned it. She doesn't deserve it right now.

D Arlando Fortune: 22:10

So if I can do that with my children, what would I think that my departed, greater than me, my heavenly father, is going to do for me with all infinite intelligence? So I had to trust that, and that was the most humiliating moment. The most humbling moment right then was like all right, I'm good, I didn't worry about it again. So when I actually got released a few months later, I was like, oh, this is happening, this is really happening. I wasn't thinking about it as much anymore.

Daniela SM: 22:30

And so fortunate. Just talk about your fate. Not everybody has it and you always had it the same way.

D Arlando Fortune: 22:38

Oh yes, that's where my arrogance came from. Okay, because I always believed God had my back from. Because I always believed God had my back period. I had been in accidents and walked away with no scars, no scratches on me. I'd done all types of dumb stuff and walked away from it. I was constantly getting the top in all these things that I tried. So I'm just blessed. I already knew. I just felt that way, period and it leads to arrogance, at least in me. In a day Maybe not to somebody else, but period and it leads to arrogance, at least in me. It did. Maybe not to somebody else, but for me it led to arrogance.

Daniela SM: 23:08

So I assume that your faith was built by your parents? Yes, do you have siblings? Are they similar to you?

D Arlando Fortune: 23:15

I have a younger sister. Her faith is very strong. It is a little different. Our parents raised us in Christianity but they didn't force us, like you have to be a Christian. They allowed us to explore. They wanted us to always expand and figure out things for ourselves. We couldn't just say I'm going to go do this and that's what it is. We had to explore, do our research and find out and have a reason for why we're doing it, be intentional about why we're doing it. That's part of the reason why the drugs didn't make any sense. I wasn't being intentional, I was just going off to everything, because being intentional meant I couldn't do the fun stuff. At least that's what I thought I can't do fun stuff.

D Arlando Fortune: 23:49

My sister went on her journey trying different types of Zen, Buddhism and all those types of things. I went on my journey studying Taoism, studying Confucianism, reading the Quran, looking at Indian spirituality, like all these different things that I was studying. I've always been a nerd, so I was hyper, just like going down these rabbit holes, and this was way before the internet. So you really had to like, really want to learn something, to get the information. So I studied all that stuff and that I came around to the same. This conclusion was that one we're all selfish, period. All of us are selfish. No matter if you're saying, oh, I'm not selfish, I always give like yeah, well, you're giving, because that is that service part and that's the spirituality part about being connected. And I read a book by Dalai Lama that was talking about science and spirituality and he connected them like they're saying the same thing and I was like what? So it was like mind blown by the fact of realizing that science is proof of life through facts and that spirituality is proof of life through faith. However, I must have faith in those facts and all my facts must also be based in faith, so they're always connected and talking about each other. So if that is true, then it's much easier to be faithful, because I'm always being faithful, just like every time I sit down, I have faith. This chair is going to sit here. Every time I move through my life and with the idea that I'm going to be blessed, good things happen to me.

D Arlando Fortune: 25:34

It's amazing how often people would talk about someone else, how they get treated. That person is so mean. They do this and that and the other and I'm like they don't treat me like that. So why do they treat you like that? I don't treat me like that. I'm like well, I go into the kind of relationship thinking you're going to treat me right, period. Why would you not treat me right? That's what I think. Now doesn't mean everyone will, but for the most part, vast majority of the time, I get treated differently because I expect to be treated differently. I have faith that I'm a certain type of individual, you're going to treat me a certain way, and that same faith goes out to all the things that I'm going to do.

Daniela SM: 26:09

But you say you were a nerd, but it seems like you were a cool nerd. Yeah, I mean yes Because you know like you like to study, but then also you had the charisma for people to also want to attract and, oh, I want to hang around with you.

D Arlando Fortune: 26:25

Yes. So now that comes from? I believe this is me analyzing myself, looking at my life where do things come from and how do I teach some of these things? Because people are like you're so charismatic. How did you do that? Like I don't know, just do it.

D Arlando Fortune: 26:43

But then I started realizing, as I looked at my life, my father being in the service, we moved around a lot. I'm not necessarily good at long-term nurturing relationships, because when I was a child the relationship was only going to be like three or four years. So I got very good at connecting with people very quickly and making friends very quickly, but I didn't get very good at nurturing the long relationship. So the charisma comes from being able to connect very quickly and I was like I don't know how to teach that other than to be very fascinated with people. I am fascinated with people, I'm fascinated by life, hence the nerdy part of me, which is why you kind of podcast. You're fascinated with people and it becomes magnetic. People want to keep talking to you because you're truly interested, like tell me more. When you start approaching people with that type of, from that intention, you become charismatic.

Daniela SM: 27:36

I love what you're saying because now I realized I travel we travel for other reasons, and so I'm very good at connecting with people quickly. So the way you say it is just perfect. Like it's true, I'm very good at connecting for work. It's perfect for me, right? Thank you for explaining.

D Arlando Fortune: 27:53

That was a good lesson.

Daniela SM: 27:54

Yes, yes, that's pretty cool, okay, so going back to your faith so you learn all these things, and your sister too, but you both went back into Christianity.

D Arlando Fortune: 28:05

Yes, and no One thing I found to be true is that almost any religion that you go into, that religion is governance. I don't like the governance, which is the reason why in the United States, we separate church and state, because religion is a form of governing telling people what to do, doctrines and so forth. However, spirituality is not. Spirituality is a form of governing telling people what to do, doctrines and so forth. However, spirituality is not. Spirituality is a philosophy for life. And what I found at the heart of almost every religion, the major religions, I found, are the same principles Love a higher power and love everybody else. That's it. And so when that became true, then it's like well, then it doesn't really matter which one I choose, because they're all saying the same thing. And then it came around to me as I got older, in the last few years, I realized a different thing. It came to a different perspective in that I'm using the analogy of cars. I use the analogy of cars. I drive a Nissan, my dad likes a Cadillac, my son has a Honda and my sister likes Cherokees and Jeeps and stuff. Right, why do we have all these different cars? They're doing the same thing. It's the vehicle to get me from here to there. Why do we have those different cars? Because I'm going to learn something differently than the next person.

D Arlando Fortune: 29:23

I believe God and his infinite intelligence realizes that certain people are'm going to learn something differently than the next person. I believe God and his infinite intelligence realizes that certain people are not going to accept God in this form of Christianity. So he created this other form that might be Hinduism, and we have this other form that might be Islam or whatnot. So these different forms? How he presented himself to people so he can be accepted by that type of individual. That's what I've come to believe. There is only one power that just now is going out and saying this is how you will receive me. So that's how he presents himself. That helps me to realize that it has nothing to do with the religious part of the religiosity of those programs. It is about the spiritual principles, and all of them say the same thing.

Daniela SM: 30:08

When you talk, you sound very, very strong faith. It doesn't sound spiritual, you sound more religious.

D Arlando Fortune: 30:15

Yeah, because I truly believe what I'm saying. That becomes part of who I am and I like to identify as someone that is very spiritual. I am faith-based, but my faith doesn't necessarily have to ascribe to any type of. You're going to follow Jesus Christ, or you're going to follow Buddha, or you're going to follow Allah. I'm not saying any of that. I don't care which one you follow. I don't care if you follow any of them. You could be agnostic or whatnot, and just believe there's a higher power. Just the idea of realizing there's something greater than you must be true, because otherwise, because something has set things in motion. Even science says there's something, everything in motion, and they don't know what it is, so they give it some crazy name. Just what am I believing in? It is that spiritual essence, because it's been proven on both sides of science and spirituality. These principles are what control this world that we live in. So how can I not be strong in that belief?

Daniela SM: 31:12

I always thought they needed to be different faiths, because some people need to be told how to behave. Some of us can know what's right and wrong, and other people need to be told that there is somebody watching you if you don't do the right thing and then? But if you confess, then it's all okay, you can start all over again.

D Arlando Fortune: 31:35

Yeah, that depends on the beliefs. Yeah, absolutely.

Daniela SM: 31:37

So that's quite interesting, but I do believe that it's important to have these faiths because the sense of community Okay. So, and what about your sister? I don't really know? I don believe that it's important to have these faiths because the sense of community Okay, so what about your sister?

D Arlando Fortune: 31:48

I don't really know. I don't think she really knows either, because she has like this amalgamation of different things and stuff. I mean, she's a Reiki master, which is definitely not anything to do with Christianity, which we grew up in, but she still reads her Bible, but she's still like no, it's all spirituality, there's nothing foundational that she's like this is what I am, but she will go to church. That's what we grew up in, keeping herself open-minded and just learning about people and being fascinated with life and growing spiritually. When I start talking about this one faith, these are the principles. Everything outside of that we don't get to see that, but then that's limiting my faith to an extent. That's what we believe, my sister and I believe, so we're like what about this? That makes a lot of sense. We need to accept that also.

Daniela SM: 32:37

Uh-huh Interesting, okay, well, and what about your kids? How are you going to teach them? How do you teach them this faith?

D Arlando Fortune: 32:44

So for me, the spirituality part, I think, is something that's built based upon showing like, by being an example, doing the right thing, saying the right thing. Like I give my daughter whatever she wants to explore, I'll explore. Now I give her a version of the Bible. That's like. They're like these kids like these, because she's nine, she likes these. What do they call it? Chapter books is what they call them. So basically they're like comics, graphic novels basically. So I found one that's the Bible in a graphic novel form. So now she's kind of like reading through that. I only bought it for her because she decided she wanted to read some of the Bible.

D Arlando Fortune: 33:18

She doesn't understand those wherefores and thous any more than I did when I was her age. So I'm like you don't understand these stories here, read this, that'll help you understand it. However, the spiritual aspect of it is me letting her know that you have a part that's greater than you, that wants to love on you. You can talk to him at any time. That also means you can talk to your mother. Her mother ended up dying from drugs and so forth, so she's not here, but she can still talk to her spirit. She's like her spirit never left. Her energy is still around, she's still loving, still caring for you.

D Arlando Fortune: 33:47

So I still teach those things through those small conversations, but mainly because of she's hearing me talk about it on my podcast, she's hearing me talk about it in these interviews, she's hearing me talk about it to other people being in 12-step programs, so she's constantly being introduced to it. I don't want to force it on her, but I want her to have those seeds planted because I feel like what happens so often and I've heard it so many times from people like I was forced to go to church and so they kind of rebel from it. I was forced to go to mass or whatever, and they kind of rebel and at some point they kind of come back and find their way, hopefully. My thing is, I'm a teacher of the spiritual principles and whatever path you decide to go, that's up to you.

Daniela SM: 34:27

Yeah, all right, okay. So then you had two kids, you went to jail. You came out of it clean.

D Arlando Fortune: 34:36

Yes.

Daniela SM: 34:38

And then what happened?

D Arlando Fortune: 34:39

No, I was in jail for nine months. I didn't go to prison, so there's a difference between jail and prison.

Daniela SM: 34:44

But didn't go to prison. So there's a difference between jail and prison. But didn't you go to a?

D Arlando Fortune: 34:46

recovery. I was clean for nine months while I was in there. I didn't do anything while I was in there. However, within 45 minutes of being released, I was high. That's how it was, because I'm a true addict and so they said I had like a week or so before I had to start reporting to court. So, of course, I'm going to go, take advantage of every opportunity. That's just how I was thinking at the time in 2014,. Right, 10 years ago. I took that advantage.

D Arlando Fortune: 35:10

What I had to do for the drug court program was show up to court once a week and I had to go to. I had to do drops periodically, I had to call into this phone line and to see if I had to give a drop the next day, and then I had to go to so many meetings. So I started doing that and I got a sponsor and I started working through my program. I got about nine months clean. I started like September 30th. I finally got clean and started staying clean for about nine months. Then I had this crazy slip, crazy story. I decided, oh, let me go to see whatever. And I remember getting high that night and was like I don't want this anymore. This isn't me anymore, like being clean just had destroyed any idea of it's okay to get high. I have a little girl. I'm going to go to prison if I get caught. This is not the oh. I'm getting teary eyed a little bit. I'm sorry. That's how emotional it got right. Okay, I can't do this. I haven't done. I haven't chucked any drugs or alcohol since May 25th. So this week, as of this recording, will be nine years clean and sober from drugs and alcohol. That shift happened Now.

D Arlando Fortune: 36:18

The other thing that happened during that timeframe when I was locked up is I started trying to take all these principles that God was giving me, because I didn't know if I was going to stay clean. So I was like, my mind's sober, my thoughts are clear. I'm going to write some things out to give to my son. So I wrote down these like 12 principles and I thought I was like I'm going to write a book. This is a perfect book. I had, like these legal notebook paper and I'd fold it in half. I had like these, the legal notebook paper and I'd folded it in half and I drew like this cover on it, wrote a table of contents and I like, wrote these little chapters out. I had this little paper book and I was so excited, but I didn't do anything with it immediately when I got out Because, like I said, I started using when I first got out.

D Arlando Fortune: 36:59

When I got clean on September 30th, I decided let me type this out 20 pages. And I was like 20 pages of glory. I'm an author. I was super excited, can't nobody tell me nothing? I wrote a book but I didn't do anything with it because I was scared.

D Arlando Fortune: 37:14

I wanted to prove the principles. I had Zig Ziglar's words in my head, because Zig Ziglar said everybody should write a book and I was like, yes, everyone should write a book. I remember hearing that. But he said but not everybody should publish, okay, and he started. He goes forward with it and that story and he starts talking about how he had a book that was being released through a publisher, but he was overweight at the time. So before the book came out, he needed to lose weight and be in alignment with the principles that he had written about in that book. And I felt the same thing.

D Arlando Fortune: 37:48

So for the next 18 months I started living out the principles in those 20 pages until I met a woman named Cashel Kelly who challenged me, as I said, about not taking God's glory and tell his story, and that awakening, when I went out and started talking about being a recovering addict, about doing all the things that I'd done facing 12 years of prison and finally getting clean, it released all that pressure that was on me.

D Arlando Fortune: 38:12

God had my back and I was very aware and that's when I decided to go ahead and take that book and I expanded on it and basically it was a download. I would come, I would type, I was writing like 675 words a day. That's all I wanted to do. And until the book was done I know when it was done, when it was done, it was gonna be done, but when I sat down to write, I would just start typing. And then I just come out of it and I have to read what I'd written, what I typed out, because I didn't know what was going on. I was just kind of like words were coming to me and I was just putting them on the page. So that first book called Unlimited Potential how to Stop Living with Fear, doubt and Uncertainty was just that A download from God to let me know. These are the principles for you to live by and the things that I didn't live by for the last 18 months, proving those out, and that changed everything for me.

Daniela SM: 38:57

Well, but so you were reading a lot before anyway.

D Arlando Fortune: 39:04

Oh yes, I was already reading. I was getting high and still reading audio books. I was still listening to spiritual songs. I knew I wasn't supposed to be doing what I was doing. So what I would do, even though I was listening to those things, when it was time for me to go steal out of a grocery store or whatever I was going to go do, when I was going to go, I was doing things with having women dropping them off to tricks and things like that. I wouldn't play that music because that music would make me rethink. My conscience would kick in. You shouldn't be doing this. So I put in stuff like Yo Gotti, I put in like gangster rap and put that in and that would change my thinking in a moment and I get energized to go do something stupid and illegal.

Daniela SM: 39:42

I can see the music doing that Right. Okay, so that's fascinating, but yeah, so you are a learner, a constant learner.

D Arlando Fortune: 39:52

Yes.

Daniela SM: 39:53

Yeah, so that's. I mean I'm fascinated about the whole story. You wrote two books then.

D Arlando Fortune: 40:00

I have published three books a workbook and I'm part of an anthology and now I have about four more books on this computer right here that are finished and not published. I'm still working on my PhD and I'm like I just haven't published them yet.

Daniela SM: 40:17

So you went to college and study what?

D Arlando Fortune: 40:19

My earliest degree from a bachelor's degree back in my teens and twenties. I have a bachelor's degree in accounting, when I got clean and started realizing that I could change my life. Well, in 2018, I go back to college to get my master's degree in psychology, with an emphasis in life coaching. Then I turn around and decide, ah, because my aunties kind of convinced me that I should go ahead and get my PhD. So now I'm working on my PhD in psychology, with an emphasis in human performance.

Daniela SM: 40:47

Oh, wow.

D Arlando Fortune: 40:47

I told you I'm a nerd.

Daniela SM: 40:49

Yes, but then if you were an accountant, if you were an accountant, didn't you calculate it, the expense that we'll do using all the drugs?

D Arlando Fortune: 40:59

Yes, yes, I knew how much. Look when I looked at how much what I was doing, the numbers don't add up. But there's also intangibles that I wasn't accounting for, like the pain that my parents' relationship that I created because one's trying to save me and other one's like he needs to learn on his own. But then the financial stress also of them constantly paying for attorneys and getting me in and out of prison, the other people that have the relationships that I destroyed because I wasn't doing what I was supposed to do with my son's mother, with my son. And then we go back to spirituality the cost of destroying, making the connection between me and my spiritual father very thin. Why are we thin? Because I was making something else, my master.

Daniela SM: 41:47

Okay, and then you said you're doing the PhD into human performance. So what is that?

D Arlando Fortune: 41:52

It's a psychology with emphasis in human performance. It's about how do I help people be better at being themselves. So human performance goes into several areas. It goes into positive psychology, it goes into athletics, it goes into a whole bunch of areas, but the essence of it for me, the way I explain it, is that is, how do I help humans be better? Humans like, be better than being themselves in whatever aspect that might be.

Daniela SM: 42:17

I mean, I personally think that that's the reason why we're here is to know who we are and become the best version of ourself. So we have all these years of life to figure it out. If we could do it quickly and then we can just enjoy the rest. True true.

D Arlando Fortune: 42:35

But now, Ms Daniela, how many people in your life do you know that are actively working on themselves? A few, and that's it. A few. That makes it more difficult. Now we may have a little more because we're working on ourselves, so we start attracting and build people around us that are, for the most part, no, they're not, they're just they're cool with. I'm cool where I am, I'm watching TV.

Daniela SM: 43:04

I'm good with my life. I'm not doing no more, yeah, but now that you mentioned it's true, I think that everybody's always working on themselves, but not so okay, going back to you. Okay, so then the books you wrote, what else? You also have a podcast.

D Arlando Fortune: 43:14

Yes, the Wealthy Author Podcast. I interview authors. I prefer authors that are actually doing something in the world, not just writing books, but I also want them to be using that book to be growing their business in some way, because the wealthy author idea for me is not just about writing books, but about building communities, about growing something. I want to talk about the book, talk about the philosophies, but also say how are you using this book to grow your business?

Daniela SM: 43:46

And so those are the main topics that we talk about when I interview the authors. Well, you seem busy. The PhD, the books, writing, podcasting, parenting, karate, the karate, yeah, sorry, and then you, no, not karate. Holistic martial arts.

D Arlando Fortune: 43:59

Yes, yes, ma'am.

Daniela SM: 44:01

You also have a job, like you have another job as well. This is plenty.

D Arlando Fortune: 44:04

No, no, this is plenty. I do some side gigs, contract worker, the work that I do. For the most part, what I try to do is help people with their writing, so I help coaches and consultants to become these authors. Then I also help them with their marketing, as in how do we build sales funnels online sales funnels and offline sales funnels using the book to bring in new leads. Then how do we convert those leads into customers or clients for your business? It also transpires becomes me writing emails for private clients, sales pages and things like that, or even helping them people to do some ghostwriting on the side also.

Daniela SM: 44:42

All right, so perfect, nerd.

D Arlando Fortune: 44:45

Yes, I get to learn a lot of things from people, man.

Daniela SM: 44:48

It's amazing how what I learned from people and what do you do when you read a book and how do you retain the information? Do you write it down again? Or, because you were coding things, you were repeating it perfectly. So how do you do that, besides having good memory?

D Arlando Fortune: 45:03

There's several things that I do, but, to try to break it down, I could never really explain this to anyone. For the most part, what I do is I try to teach what I've learned in some way, and that teaching might be in the form of my emails or it might just be teaching it to myself, meaning I would take the concepts and I will think about how I would say them and I create a framework for it. Does that mean I will remember that framework every time I have a conversation? No, but I've thought it through enough that it's part of my working concepts and ideas. Now I go deep into one subject.

D Arlando Fortune: 45:38

I'm all into storytelling right now.

D Arlando Fortune: 45:40

I do a lot, if you can't tell, I'm all into storytelling right now. I read a lot of books on storytelling All the other books that I read outside of that, because I listen to audiobooks on fiction stories or I still go to a little personal development financial mindset. So, re-listening to Jensen Chiro's book called you Are a Badass, I'm Making Money, but these concepts are always trying to relate back to the concepts that I'm writing, I'm thinking about in storytelling. So that helps to connect ideas is that I'm constantly pulling something from here and see how does that help me understand storytelling better. That is one thing that I think has helped me, because my dad has taught me as a child to not try to memorize all these formulas but to understand the concepts, and I always remember what formula I need. So that applies to most everything that I have. I create the, I try to figure out what the concept is and then, because I create the concept, I can pull in the ideas and metaphors and stories to help me understand and explain what I'm talking about.

Daniela SM: 46:37

Excellent, so we will put all the information about your books and your podcast and how to reach out to get connected with you and get your help, if they need to, in the show notes. Anything else that you want to leave us with?

D Arlando Fortune: 46:53

Oh, absolutely. The one thing I would love to say is that you were put on this world for a reason. Do you have to know what that reason is right now? No, but you must start moving towards that thing. You are a creation, which means you have a creator and, just like every other creation in your life, we're built for a reason. So as you start figuring out what you are created to do a reason so as you start figuring out what you are created to do you then become a co-creator with your creator and together you constantly build to make this world a better place, however small that may be, whether it's just your community, just your family or a larger community. It's amazing what it's like to live that life of intention. Nothing will stop you, all right.

Daniela SM: 47:38

Thank you. That's awesome. What a great message to leave this with. Thank you so much Fortune for sharing your story with us.

D Arlando Fortune: 47:46

You're welcome. This was fun. It was absolutely fun.

Daniela SM: 47:49

Thanks. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. I am Daniela and you are listening to, because Everyone has a Story. Please take five seconds right now and think of somebody in your life that may enjoy what you just heard, or someone that has a story to be shared and preserved. When you think of that person, shoot them a text with the link of this podcast. This would allow the ordinary magic to go further. Join me next time for another story conversation. Thank you for listening. Hasta pronto.