Rise From The Ashes
Welcome to "Rise From The Ashes," the empowering podcast designed for thought leaders, entrepreneurs, and visionary CEOs ready to turn their challenges into triumphs. Each episode delves deep into the heart of resilience, offering you a front-row seat to the comeback stories of business leaders who have dared to face adversity and emerge victorious.
Join us as we explore profound narratives of failure and success, narrated by those who have walked through fire and rebuilt their empires from the ashes. Hosted by seasoned experts, this podcast provides an in-depth look at the strategic maneuvers and bold decisions that define a resilient entrepreneur.
From life-altering challenges to innovative strategies, "Rise From The Ashes" equips you with the insights and tools to forge a path to success. Whether you're a battle-hardened CEO or a budding entrepreneur stepping into the arena, this show guides you through the tumultuous yet rewarding business world.
Tune in to transform adversity into opportunity, ignite your entrepreneurial spirit, and start crafting your remarkable success story. At "Rise From The Ashes," we don’t just tell stories—we inspire you to create your legacy of resilience and triumph. Listen now and begin your journey to becoming a phoenix in the business world.
Key Themes:
- Resilience and overcoming adversity
- Strategic business insights
- Entrepreneurial success stories
- Leadership and innovation
"Rise From The Ashes" is more than a podcast; it's a community of forward-thinkers turning their business trials into triumphs. Subscribe today and never miss an episode of inspiration, strategy, and practical advice to help you survive and thrive in the dynamic business world. Join us and rise victoriously!
Available on All major podcast platforms, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts. Follow us to stay updated with enlightening dialogues and transformative insights that pave your way to success.
Rise From The Ashes
Gangland to Greatness: Donney Salazar’s Unstoppable Transformation
When life throws its hardest punches, how do you rise above and rewrite your own story? Donney Salazar, CEO of Relevant Speaker and author of "Courage to Stand Tall," joins us today to share his remarkable journey from adversity to empowerment. Donney's story is not just a recounting of his path; it's a masterclass in transforming trauma into triumph.
From a childhood marred by domestic violence and gang culture to becoming a beacon of leadership and resilience, Donney reveals the powerful role of mentorship and the profound impact of channeling inner strength, resilience, and, above all, courage. His tale is gripping, raw, and inspiring, shining a light on what it truly takes to rise against all odds.
What does it mean to turn your weaknesses into superpowers? Donney confronts the all-too-familiar monster of imposter syndrome and illustrates how failure can be the fuel for success. His life lessons are a treasure trove for personal development, emphasizing that the permission to break free from a destructive path must come from within. With candid reflections, Donney shares pivotal moments that acted as catalysts, propelling him to success in both his personal and professional life.
In our deep dive, Donney and I explore what it means to be a courageous leader in today's world. We delve into the Harvard and Institute of Coaching Federation study on negative thoughts, highlighting how our brains are battlegrounds where the fight for positivity must be won daily. This episode is a celebration of the courage to not only leave behind a tarnished past but also to build a legacy that inspires others to do the same.
Donney's journey is more than just an inspirational story—it's a powerful invitation to ignite your own movement of courageous legacy-building. Join us for an episode that promises to fuel your spirit, challenge your perceptions, and perhaps, set you on the path to creating your extraordinary life story. Don't miss out on this transformative conversation.
Colorado’s best business coach, Baz Porter, has a new mindset strategy mentoring service to help you unlock new heights of growth, prosperity, happiness, and success. Book your first meeting with the coaching visionary at https://www.ramsbybaz.com/
Friends, our time together is coming to a close. Before we part ways, I sincerely thank you for joining me on this thought-provoking journey. I aim to provide perspectives and insights that spark self-reflection and positive change.
If any concepts we explored resonated with you, I kindly request that you share this episode with someone who may benefit from its message. And please, reach out anytime - I’m always eager to hear your biggest aspirations, pressing struggles, and lessons learned.
My door is open at my Denver office and digitally via my website. If you want to go deeper and transform confusion into clarity on your quest for purpose, visit ceoimpactzone.com and schedule a coaching session.
This is Baz Porter signing off with immense gratitude. Stay bold, stay faithful, and know that you always have an empathetic ear and wise mind in your corner. Until next time!
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of Rise from the Ashes podcast. It is always an opportunity and always a pleasure and a privilege to have interview and guests with incredible stories and they've overcome so much adversity and built resilience in their lives. This podcast exists purely because of that reason. My next guest is Donnelly Lazella. Did I spell that? I said it right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you said it, salazar.
Speaker 1:Yeah, great Good job and he has one such story. I'm going to let him introduce himself, as always. But Donnelly, welcome to the podcast and please tell everybody what you do now and a bit about yourself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my name is Donnie Salazar and I am actually the CEO of a company called Relevant Speaker. Also, I'm an author of a book called Courage to Stand Tall. I speak a lot, but I love hearing other people's stories. I know that my story is unique and it's amazing to see how many people have such great stories and how people really gravitate to specific individuals when they tell that story. And so that's what my business is about helping other speakers get out there and know how to run their business as speakers, but also being in front of the right audience and, yeah, I think that's very important as well to be in front of the right audience for your message.
Speaker 1:People just go out there and think I'll just go in front of any audience and it doesn't resonate and it seems as if they flop a lot. Is that your experience with?
Speaker 2:speakers. Yeah, absolutely, that's what we see a lot is. There's this imposter syndrome that people struggle with and really it's. They don't understand how unique they really are and how they are the. They are the master of a specific topic because they've been through so much and they've seen it firsthand yeah, that brings me to my next question.
Speaker 1:With entrepreneurship, people confuse it a lot with a normal corporate job, and that transition is never the same. Can you define a pivotal moment within your entrepreneurial journey that changed everything you thought was reality for?
Speaker 2:yourself. Yeah, it was actually. I had this. I guess you can call him a mentor. He actually sat me down and he saw everything I was bringing to the table in his specific company and he said Donnie, it's time for me to let you go out and do this on your own. I can't hold you back because you're so good at what you do. I need you to go see how good you really are. And when he said that, it was like it wasn't him firing me, it was more him empowering me to be the CEO of my own company and to really flourish as an entrepreneur. He actually gave me that courage to say, hey, I can do this, I'm capable of doing it because I've done it for him, I can do it for me. And so he really pushed me. He said it's your time. That's the one thing he did say it's your time, you go do it.
Speaker 1:I like that. He sounds like he gave you also permission from an internal space. Yeah, people that I find, who are wanting to leave that corporate and that nine to five job, which is comfortable to some degree, they find it very overwhelming. Coming into the real world of entrepreneurship, not knowing skills, trying to learn everything, and they don't have, they haven't given themselves permission to do that sort of moment for you, from a recognition, from a mental point of view.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think for me is I've always lived by something that if he can do it, I can do it, or she can do it, I can do it, and but I've never. It was really scary to venture out on my own, because I did have that comfort of that nine to five. I did have that comfort of that salary and things like that and to say I'm going to go out and do this, I don't know if I'm going to fail, I don't know what's going to happen, I don't know if I'm going to succeed. And so I just trusted in all my abilities. I trusted in the people that had faith in me, and because they had faith in me, it gave me the opportunity to have faith in myself and just keep enduring through all the trials and ups and downs as an entrepreneur.
Speaker 1:Yes, and I think that's what it takes as well. Is that grit and resilience to come back? When we talk about resilience, I know you've built up a lot in the past. Can you share, if you will, a bit about where you've come from and that journey? Share as much as you can within reason?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, I've been thinking about this lately. It's just where I've come from. I shouldn't be here. I shouldn't be in the position where I run my own company or helping others succeed in the way that my company does and the people that I surround myself with.
Speaker 2:I grew up in a home where it was very dysfunctional. I watched my dad beat my mom at four years old, and one of the first memories of my life is watching him beat my mom on our kitchen floor, literally punching her in the face. And then my mom had the courage to leave my dad. When I was four, she took us to California and our whole life just got even crazier. And during that time my older brother got involved in gangs and he's nine years older than I am, and so he's my idol. He's the guy I want to be like growing up. But his gang relationships led him to stealing a truck and he fell out of the back of a truck and got paralyzed. To stealing a truck and he fell out of the back of a truck and got paralyzed. And then my mom, him and my stepdad started selling drugs out of our home and we got raided when I was nine and I actually opened the door to the police and it was just chaotic, it was just crazy that day and they took my mom, my stepdad and my brother to jail. My brother spent two years in prison. The first time I visited a prison was at nine years old. My brother joined a notorious prison gang which was a form of the Mexican mafia. While he was in prison, came out and recruited my mom and my stepdad to be part of that lifestyle with him, my mom, my stepdad to be part of that lifestyle with him. And we just had this crazy lifestyle in my early teens to where you saw people getting killed and people selling drugs. I was being taught how to sell drugs when I was 15 years old by my mom, my stepdad. They were showing me how to weigh drugs on a scale. They would show me how to make sure a product is potent enough to put it out on the street and bringing in somebody to do the drugs to see how they reacted to them, and it was just that crazy lifestyle.
Speaker 2:And then my brother and I'm giving you the cliff note version of this whole story. So my brother actually got indicted and he was facing the death penalty and I was going through this kind of juggling, these two different lifestyles, because I started to play sports and I loved football and I played baseball and I have this gangster life over here on one side and then I have this athletic life over here on one side and then I have this athletic life over here on the other side and at 15 years old, I'm trying to figure out who I am and I don't want to be disloyal to my family. But I also started to feel accepted by my athletic lifestyle and so when my brother got indicted, I went to go visit him just before I was headed to go stay with my dad for the summer because my parents divorced and so I, when I went to visit my brother it was crazy I went to, I took the bus to the county jail in California and I go to the county jail, I check in, they take me to this room and this room is. They open a door, it's out. They take me outside through a hall and then the room that opens up and there's an officer at a desk to my right. In front of me, there's a visiting booth and if you've seen movies, you've seen the glass, the phone on one side and the other side in the stool they bring. I go sit down. My brother's not there yet and finally there's a door on the other side. It opens up and there's my brother and two other officers.
Speaker 2:Now my brother's in this red jumpsuit. He's tattooed from the ears down of gang affiliated tattoos and he's in his wheelchair and they have him shackled at the waist. They have him shackled at the ankles and they bring him in. They release one ankle, shackle, cuff it to a stool that is cemented in the ground. Then they only release one hand so he can talk to me on the phone. And I'm watching this whole scene and he's watching me as I'm watching him and he picks up the phone. I pick up the phone and he said to me first he said hi and I love you and all that stuff. But then he said you look confused and I said I am all that stuff. But then he said you look confused and I said I am. And he said I have one thing to tell you Don't become me, leave this place and don't come back. Become something better than I am Now.
Speaker 2:My brother spent 25 years in prison for crimes that he committed with this notorious prison gang. I spent 25 years while he was in prison, becoming something different. I had to change. I had to learn how to read. I didn't know how to read until I was 20. I had to learn how to treat people differently, to see people differently, and I had to surround myself with people who did the same, and so it took a lot of courage to change. I had to walk away from relationships. I had to walk away from just the lifestyle I lived, and so that propelled me into who I am today, and I've just seen a lot of changes in me and how I see people, and I love watching people change. I love watching them be the best versions of themselves, because I feel like I'm the best version of myself, and so that's my story in a nutshell, but yeah, that's incredible.
Speaker 1:That's a cliff note, obviously, and you've condensed it, but even now, when you speak about it, I can feel the journey with you and that's an incredible power to have when you can talk about something and bring as a speaker, as an inspirational speaker whatever keynote doesn't matter bring people into that journey and that's a gift. It's a gift. That's something that can't be taught, that is a natural progression into your experience, but taking it and taking it on its head and putting it out in such a way of don't be that guy, don't do that, and that's a, that's a true gift. This is why I love speaking into your people like yourself, and you mean the bounce back from that is incredible.
Speaker 2:What lessons, what were the major lessons that you learned on that, on the return from that journey, after you met your brother, like that, I think I always go back to this piece that's in my book is and I start my book off with this story and the story is called it's the story of the elephant rope right that when elephants are young they tie a rope to their ankle so they can't move and that rope's strong enough that the elephant can't get away and as they grow up they start to depend on that rope or that rope continues to be the same size rope but the elephant's strong enough as they grow up to break that rope. But because they've been conditioned to think they can't, they won't. And I think that's where I had to recondition myself. I had to tell myself it was okay to change, it was okay to be different. I didn't have to be the gangster, I didn't have to be the tough guy. I didn't have to be that little vato that used to walk down the street with his hair, things like that. I could be somebody who's educated and intelligent and it was okay to be that way. And I think that was.
Speaker 2:The changing point is when my brother said don't become me. The changing point is when my brother said don't become me. He gave me permission to make that change and I just ran with it. But I had to find the people that were going to help me change and it took courage to approach them. It took courage to let people know my story a little bit because I was afraid of how people would perceive me. But I had to trust that. People saw that I was willing to put in the work to change and when they saw that I was willing to put in the work to change, they took interest and they gave me their time to help me change.
Speaker 1:And I think that was the big piece and that's defining for a lot of people. If you listen to this now and you're at that cusp, whatever journey you're in, go back and listen to what was just said, because it was partnering up. It was that self-permission to change, to move forward and not become history of what's just happened. We talk about failure a lot in the world and you mentioned earlier imposter syndrome. These are buzzwords in a special entrepreneurial world. How did imposter syndrome show up for you firstly, and how did you use a failure to fuel your journey, yeah.
Speaker 2:So imposter syndrome came in, like when I was 15. Yeah, I went to a different school here in yeah where I taught and, being hispanic, looking like a little gangster things like that, coming from california and I just dressed like a gangster. That's's the way I dressed and I didn't know anything different. But I knew I could play. I could play football. I knew that I was fast, I was quick and I wasn't afraid to get hit or things like that. So I decided to go and try out for the high school team just down the street from my house and in Utah you don't have to try out football, you just play right. But I remember walking onto the field and all the kids. There wasn't any minorities on this football team, it was all Caucasian kids that come from two-parent families, things like that.
Speaker 2:I'm coming from a dysfunctional lifestyle and when I walk on this field these kids were practicing and they all stopped and just stared at me and that's when I felt like I was in the wrong place, because in California I never felt like that, because I was surrounded by people who were just like me. But now I was in a different place and that's when I realized that I needed to depend on my abilities. Some people saw them as weaknesses. I saw them as strengths, like my size and I'm five foot two. But when I played football, I was a running back, and so when my offensive line stood up, guess who? You don't see the five foot two guys. So when I'm running around the corner, it's I'm finally like 10 yards down the field before you notice I even have the ball. And so I took that weakness that people saw me as a short guy and I used it to become, used it as a strength.
Speaker 2:And that's when I started to develop things as saying you know what? I have certain abilities and I can do things that other people can't do, and I can do. People do things that other people can do, so why not me? And so, in order for me to overcome the imposter syndrome, I always say that if he can do it, I can do it. It doesn't matter how big I am, it doesn't matter how my lack of education, I can always learn, I can always master something. Yeah, it may take me longer, but I will master it, and when I do, I'm going to be that much better. And that's how I overcome imposter syndrome is knowing that if they can do it, I can do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like that when we look at redefining rock bottom, there's a. We spoke about imposter syndrome and going down that road I can relate to the rugby thing. I used to play rugby as a kid and I was a. I'm small, I'm not five foot two, I'm about five foot eight, five foot nine, but I was very slim, bill, but I was fast, a bit like you. Yeah, I can relate to that very much. Yeah, but there's something that I like here where you continually perceive to be hitting rock bottom, there's always this resilient side of you going. That's not it.
Speaker 1:I'm not staying there. Let's get back up Within your lowest points as an entrepreneur. How did you refine or redefine that moment of not? Again, we're doing this and coming back from that?
Speaker 2:That's a great question. Always it takes courage right, there's always that courageous decision that you make, because you can always quit that's always an option but it takes courage to continue to keep moving forward. And when you fall, just pick up where you are. And I remember that because I was a wrestler in high school and I just I remember my first match. I lost, and I shouldn't have lost the match, but I lost it because of I was wrestling varsity my first time ever and I lost because I was nervous. And the thing is I forgot everything that I had learned up to that point and I just in.
Speaker 2:So now, as an entrepreneur, I try not to forget everything that I've learned up to that failure point. Right Now I say, okay, I've learned this much stuff. The failure is where I start to really learn how to use those things that I've learned and I really use them to push through that failure. So it takes courage to push through that last piece of failure, because it's hard. It's easy to just walk away and just say you know what? I failed, I don't want to do this anymore, it hurts too bad. Or you can just say, no, I'm going to push through this and continue to rely on the skills and the education and everything that I've already put into this to push me through. But it takes courage to say I'm going to continue to push through. I'm going to continue to say I'm going to continue to push through, I'm going to continue to fight so you can get to the point of success.
Speaker 1:That's where success is, on the other side of failure. I love them. There's a book that I like. A friend of mine wrote it along with. Not two friends of mine wrote it, co-authored it. Sharon Lecter and Dr Greg Reed wrote a book called Three Feet from Gold. Have you ever read that?
Speaker 2:No, but I know the story yeah.
Speaker 1:So this reminds me of that book where you're just like I'm not going to fail, I'm not going to fail, I'm not going to fail. Many entrepreneurs go through this challenge of they stop short and they don't push themselves the extra mile or the extra three feet where the riches and wherever you define success, as is actually at. I love this story, but one question I'd like to ask everybody and I this is going to be quite impactful for you, I believe. Who was the unlikely mentor in your life, who was the kind of one that came off the right flank and you didn't see? All of a sudden, they changed your life completely.
Speaker 2:It was while I was. It was my junior year in high school. Actually, this guy came out of nowhere. He went to, he brought his boys to one of our football games and he saw this little number two running the ball. And he just get pummeled by these big guys and just hop up and be excited, jump right back into the huddle and do it again. And his sister actually went to the same school I did and he told his sister hey, if you ever meet that little number two, I want to meet him. And I had no idea. And so eventually I would start dating his sister. And one night his sister, her sister, was sick.
Speaker 2:One day and one night I decided to go over and check on my girlfriend. She was sick and so I wanted to make sure she was okay and she was actually living with him. And so I went to the house and he opened the door and he said you're number two. And I said yeah, I said you're number two. I said yeah, I said my name is Donnie Salazar. But yeah, he said hey, donnie, come in.
Speaker 2:Instead of taking me to his sister, he took me upstairs to his kitchen, sat me down at the kitchen table, had a plate of cookies and gave me a glass of milk Over cookies and milk. He proceeded to ask me about me. He was more interested in me than anything else, to learn my story and when I told him I was on this big change, he took interest in that and he actually gave me my first suit that I've never wore a suit in my life, I never had one and he gave me a suit from his actually three suits from his closet took me down and got me fitted, make sure they fit my little body and then but he was he's still my mentor to this day. Mentor to this day, and but just a great guy who took interest in this kid that had no direction and gave him direction. And that's that I always call this, this story, the cookies and milk story.
Speaker 2:Right Cause that I didn't see it coming, it just came out of nowhere. It was a guy I never even met my life. From the first time I met him, he continued to change my life. He continued to put me on a path of hey, if I can do it, you can do it about anybody who is really successful, and success is defined not by wealth, money.
Speaker 1:It's defined by how you feel and the contributions you give, and that's my personal view on it. Yeah, I agree, but you'll find with most successful people they ask more questions than anybody else. They won't sit there and they won't give advice. This was very apparent with someone like Warren Buffett, and Simon Sinead went to interview him, asked him questions and it turns out Warren Buffett. When they interviewed each other, warren Buffett would ask just slamming questions and he wouldn't stop. And that became a trait of more successful people asking more higher educated, higher value questions and they always gave more than they've received. So it sounds like your mentor was, or is, one of these people. I know you said he's still in your life. You know you can give him recognition here. I'm quite happy to put his name in the articles.
Speaker 2:What's so funny is he doesn't want recognition, and that's how great he is. When I wrote my book and when I started speaking, I asked him. I said hey, can I use your name in my book and also while I'm speaking because you're a big part of my life? And he said you know what, donnie, I absolutely love you and I've loved watching you grow into the man you are, and I don't need recognition. And he said that and that even just another teaching moment, right, so humble and so just hey, you know what I set out to help you and I've done that and I don't need recognition for it.
Speaker 2:And I'll give you his. I'll just say, mr Rios, cause that's his, but just one of those guys that that you want to be like he wants. He's very successful, highly successful in his life and he's, but at the same time he's very humble and he's one of those millionaires next door type guys, and so he's taught me a lot in that area also, but he's just not someone that takes recognition. He's just like this is just who I am, this is what I do, and that's the example he is to me is this is just who I am and this is just what I do.
Speaker 1:And I love people like that. I'd probably used to interview him. Now I'm just like anyway, when we look at elevating others we had a story just then. How would you elevate your audience? I want to go into the book in a moment because I really want to learn about that and I want the audience to really come in and experience that and also get the goddamn book, which will be in the link in the bio, and go there to Amazon or wherever. Where is it?
Speaker 2:Amazon. Yeah, it's on Amazon. It's Courage to Stand Tall, and you'll just see this little guy raising his hand up trying to get as high as he can next to a ruler.
Speaker 1:So the books start to finish. I know you elevate others in your speaking career.
Speaker 2:You train others to speak on stages. How did the book coincide and align with what your speaking career is? Now, I know there's a lot of must be a lot of stories in there and also lessons. How do they line up? One of the things that I do with a lot of leaders and people. I speak on three different topics courageous leadership, courage to stand tall. And courageous salesperson.
Speaker 2:And in all three of those, I work on mindset the mindset I want people to really take their story and just get it out there, get it out of their system, write it down. But also I want them to take their negatives in their story and also take their positives, and I want them to connect them, and so when I work with people, I want them to bridge the gap of negatives and positives. So let's take my mom getting beat when I was four years old. It is. So let's take my mom getting beat when I was four years old. That's made me a better husband Just seeing my mom suffer. I don't want my wife to suffer. I don't want her to ever feel like she's less than me. I don't want her to ever feel like she has a husband that she has to be afraid of or anything like that. So I've worked really hard on being a great husband. I fail at times, worked really hard on being a great husband. I fail at times, of course, but my focus is always love my wife. I want her to feel so loved that when I walk in the house she sees me and she's I love that man. I fear that man.
Speaker 2:And so I've taken the negatives in my life and I've actually created positives, and now my negatives are no longer negatives. They're actually learning experiences that make me better every day. And then I work on goals and routines and all that stuff. But I just want to see people succeed at a high level and not have all that garbage in their head that thinks that's what makes you stop and think I can't do this because of my upbringing, or I can't do this because I had this happen to me, molested, when I was seven years old, and I didn't confront it until I was 24. And when I confronted it, I realized and I looked back, I realized that it didn't really affect me as much as it should because I didn't let that person win. I actually took that and it was a fuel of.
Speaker 2:I'm never going to treat anybody the way I got treated. I'm going to treat people differently. That's also part of my faith. That's part of me having faith in a higher power and believing in God and believing in everything that I am today. I have faith in myself, but I also have faith in my higher power to deliver me from any negative thoughts and help me be strengthened. But yeah, when it comes to empowering people, I just love being on stage and seeing people's just them change right before my eyes and then having somebody come up and say I needed that today. I needed to hear that because my life is here, but I know it can be here now because of who you are. That's what this is all about.
Speaker 1:I love that there's actually a study done by Harvard and the Institute of Coaching Federation. They did a study about positive thought versus negative thoughts versus negative thoughts and actually the less you think about negativity in your life, the more successful you are. But most people believe that if you say positive things, if you think positive things, it cancels out the negative. It doesn't. The study actually showed the less negativity you thought about yourself, the more successful you became outwardly. But first it started inwardly and the brain patterns, the neurotransmitters, would change their frequency to then manifest a quantum field and I won't go into the science behind it to then create what you wanted. But it started not with positive talk that was a component for it but later on it was what you're talking about now the negativity and not thinking that and using it to fuel your dreams, your goals, your aspirations.
Speaker 1:And I love this message. Where is where when you go deeper in the book? What are the main components for the book? I want you to drop me the link in a minute. I'm going to buy the blood.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the main components of the book is courage, right In their specific courage. There's 12 chapters there that are specific courages. Chapter one is the courage to walk away. That's when I tell my mom's story of her getting beat by my dad and she having the courage to walk away from my dad. Then the courage to be different is one of the big ones for me, because when my brother said, don't become me, I had to have the courage to be different than everybody else. I still have family members that are still different than everybody else. I still have family members that are still in that lifestyle, that are still running drugs, still gang members, still doing all that stuff. But I have to have the courage to be different. I have to have the courage to really see people differently and know that I am a component of change. I'm a component to help somebody, but also, as an entrepreneur, having the courage to jump. That's a big one, because if you don't have the courage to jump, you're going to stay in the same place forever and people leave such great opportunities on the table because they don't have the courage to jump and you have to have that courage.
Speaker 2:I remember especially with Courage to Jump, one of the stories in there is my dad. We were at a park and I saw this playground. I was eight years old and there was this wood pillar and I climbed up on top of the pillar. And there was this wood pillar and I climbed up on top of the pillar and my dad. I told my dad, oh, I got scared as I was on the pillar and I said, dad, I need your help getting me getting down. He said, no, you got yourself up there, you can get yourself down. And he says, as a matter of fact, I'm going home. If you want to come home with me, you're going to jump. And so in my little scared mind, I think I'm going to die. And I counted three, probably a hundred times before I finally jumped.
Speaker 2:But when I jumped, I took off running. I hit the ground running and I chased my dad down because I didn't want to get left at the park. But the one thing he told me he said, son, I want you to remember this you can do anything as long as you put your mind to it. And I remembered that my whole life, this you can do anything as long as you put your mind to it. And I remembered that my whole life. I'm capable of doing anything as long as I put my mind to it. But I've added some things to it since then. I can do anything as long as I put my mind to it and have the courage to do it, and that's what the that's what the book's about is giving people the courage to do it, to make those changes, to cut that rope like the elephant and and leave all that negative stuff behind and just focus on how? What did I learn from the negative stuff so I can create some positive things in my life? That's what it's about.
Speaker 1:My last question here for you. I love this interview. I could go on for hours, but the people will just be like I can't do that. I would love to interview again, actually to do a part two of this, but my last question here is if you were to build a legacy, a world movement, and start it today, what would that be? I be able to.
Speaker 2:my legacy for a world movement would give people to empower people with the courageous ability to do. I think so many people are afraid to do. They're afraid to get out and be the best versions of themselves.
Speaker 1:I want people to be courageous enough to be the best version of themselves and I think that's going to take sometimes, the courage to walk away, and I just want them to be the that would be. My biggest thing was is have the courage to walk here and for spreading what you do in the world. I truly appreciate that.
Speaker 2:I absolutely love it and I love this. I love doing this. I think the best thing to say is I'm not supposed to be here, I'm supposed to be in prison, I'm supposed to be dead, or I'm supposed to be a drug addict, drug dealer, things like that. I'm not supposed to be dead, or I'm supposed to be a drug addict, drug dealer, things like that. I'm not supposed to be who I am today, but in reality, actually, I am, because I it took courage to be who I am, and so I'm grateful to grateful for it I'm grateful for you to share your story here.
Speaker 1:It is when I say it's a privilege. It it truly is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you. Thank you, thank you for having me, and I love this. I love this podcast. I've listened to it and there's some great stories on here and some great people who have overcome such great adversity and become great themselves, and so I love hearing people rise from the ashes.
Speaker 1:Donnie, thank you very much. I'm going to leave it there. Please don't go anywhere. I want everybody to go back and listen to it again. Take notes, share this message. It's free, you don't have to subscribe, but all I would ask is you share the message and change someone's life. From myself, donnie, please have a blessed day and my friends, live with purpose. As always, inspire with legacy.
