Honor Among Thieves Podcast

Running a Million Dollar Sweepstakes Scam & Ending Up in Federal Prison

• Nelson Rodriguez Jr • Season 5 • Episode 129

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Elliot Rosenberg, a Long Island native whose promising future took a wild detour. After a great childhood and early success, Elliot ventured to Costa Rica where he discovered the dark underbelly of sweepstakes scams—a quick money-making scheme that spiraled into a multi-million dollar criminal empire. His illicit activities eventually caught the eye of the FBI, leading to a federal indictment and years behind bars in North Carolina and Miami. Now back on Long Island, Elliot has completely reinvented himself by launching a thriving dog training business. Join us as Elliot shares his raw journey from crime to redemption and the lessons learned along the way.

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(0:00) what is up guys welcome back to the Montana method podcast one more time as always your host Nelson Rodriguez Jr author Creator director of the Montana method podcast today we have a very special guest Mr Elliot Rosenberg how you doing good thank you for having me we met through a very special guy Mr Spencer cook real standup guy I met him recently but I have a feeling him and are going to be friends for a long time he's very good guy um I somehow have this where I attract really special people into my life it's a Divine thing
(0:35) I can't explain it I really and you know I have to give be grateful um how you doing man good can't complain I was uh following your on your I think it was Instagram okay and I saw the shantum totally forgot I read that book that's right you comment on the video other day and then I saw didn't even know it was a show so I this is like two seen three days ago I've been watch the whole thing so I liked the show but it wasn't book they changed so much about it that it it became something different you know but for me it was I love the show
(1:10) mean I obvious the book was better but read the book trying to think how many years ago it's been so long it kind of was it good you know and a little bit different so yeah I really enjoyed it that book let me tell you so crazy story I know you probably saw the clip but I'll tell you the story anyway so a friend of mine I was in did time Central Florida okay for whatever reason I think it has to do with maybe that there aren't a lot of Cubans uh like since are immigrants obviously they only let uh American citizens go to camps like due
(1:49) time in camps if you're a resident or you have a green card and you get caught in the feds you have to go a lower higher y they don't let you go to a camp so there was only about 12 of us in the whole camp out of 500 people which is wild because you would think it's Florida there'd be a lot of Cubans but anyway so I'm there and this old dude named red everybody called him because he was like real red skin tone old Cuban guy he remind me a lot of my dad we become friends like the first day he's there I help him out you know how
(2:19) it is you know and from the day I met him until the day I left he would talk about this book he's like man he would speak to me in Spanish he's like man I can't remember the it's a super expensive book on the outside they brought in it's about this crazy story this guy that breaks out of prison and he does this crazy [ __ ] in India and like he told me the story so much I got super intrigued but we didn't have the book bro I tell him yo got my date I'm leaving and the night leaving he's runs into my room like Nelson and he was holding up
(2:54) a book and it I knew from how excited he was that it was Chan room I didn't know the title at the time he's like remember the book I told you about the guy and said oh man so it was my friend's gift to me my his partying gift it's the last time I saw him so got to read it while I was on uh house arrest like halfway house house arrest so it was kind of like my goodby to the prison system great book man such a good how long ago did you read it I think maybe it was in 2018 Maybe while ago yeah did you read this the other one sh I didn't
(3:33) even know there was another one yeah yeah I haven't read the second one but I've heard it's good yeah books I read read a lot when I was in there read 30 something books and I was didn't do much I only did five months but yeah uh books for me were they special for me they really helped reactivate my imagination I heard you guys talking out there about you had to relearn how to read me too cuz I hadn't read in a while what anything specific that comes to mind that you read while you were doing time that really like
(4:01) yeah so the other book I mean there was a bunch I was in county jail so over there was just non-stop reading and my whatever my parents and sister would ask me what to send in books and just right you know I was the book man always had different books and but the count of Mante chisto I love that was another fascinating story like something about being in prison and reading those books it just you really feel and it just took me inspiring and I love those kind of books that made me take me out of the Prison Walls and then
(4:34) also inspired me at the same time that's a special story too it has all the elements that make a story great you know like the Injustice of good guy getting hurt or wronged and then him you know his revenge and like avenging his loss like success is the best revenge all that stuff yes 100% the mentor how he got mentored all the classic like elements that you need in a story I think me so I write I'm in the middle of writing a story now for comic book and whenever I try to think of a good story I always refer back to the count
(5:10) of mon Chrystal and it's also amazing because it was written so long ago that was probably one of the oldest books I read that I could remember and it just but it didn't matter just felt so didn't matter the time such a good book yeah any other ones um I read a lot of like John Grisham balduchi a lot of like the fiction books um the Mitch rap I forgot what even the name of the author like action suspense ones but the David balachi y I read almost all his books and John Grisham and it's sick yeah I read uh I'm
(5:47) trying to think of maybe some fiction ones that I read just so much the ilad was really good I read the ilad I hadn't read it since high school it was so it really good I read all of Robert Green books like you know the 48 Laws of Power laws human nature Mastery all those books um I read this book about Abraham Lincoln it was really good specifically about the year 1862 and all everything he went through and how 1862 determined America like that one year determined our entire future it was crazy how many things
(6:21) happened in that one year were like the IRS was created and like so many different crazy things but yeah so Elliot you're originally from up north from here yep from Long Island Island yeah Long Island Boys that's cool where you're so Jewish yes cool both sides of the family yep all right so what was it like growing up so growing up on Long Island I went to private school okay and after I went to Jewish private school I went to Israel for a year oh that's cool yeah studied uh in Yeshiva there for a year then I
(6:56) went back for another semester okay cool yeah and then um went to Queen's college and it was a College Dropout you I just uh I just didn't really see the you know value in it you know and I just got kind of bored of it and then I became got my Series 3 license became a Commodities broker okay so worked a little bit on Wall Street and then always knew that kind of I didn't want to work for myself so um you know I ended up actually moving to Costa Rica amazing place I've been three times I love Costa Rica it's
(7:31) good it's awesome yeah so I became a resident over there and I was lived down there for over for over seven years wow yeah such a different experience to living in the US right yeah it's like nothing is the same what was your favorite part about Costa Ria well really I had love horses down there so I love like going to all the cabalgatas topes the weather was amazing just overall lifestyle um you know getting out of the rat race of New York and just always trying to you know keep up with the Jones is and make more money so it
(8:09) was really kind of overall just you know change of Lifestyle just enjoying life more I love that such a change of pace from New York that's like yeah wild what made you move down there really I mean had a horse in Long Island and I was like you know what was gambling at the time and just really wasn't I just wasn't enjoying my Al wasn't happy and I said you know went down there for vacation and I said this is it I can go down here live you know affordably and ride horses and uh that's kind of what and I just
(8:43) did it I just picked up and left uh and started Living down there wow that's cool were you didn't single at the time like no married not married no kids nothing okay all right so uh seven years so tell me a little bit about kind of like uh life there and then why you left and all that yeah so I mean that's kind of what brought me here today in a sense I didn't come back uh on my own right right right so living in Costa Rica was great you know I mean just life was amazing I had the horses and then I was working really popular down
(9:24) there at the time when I moved down there I moved down in 2007 so was down from 2007 to 2014 okay but was online Sports books so I started working in an online sports book um you know as a manager and then all went well eventually they kind of were downsizing and they had me lay off everybody and then they laid me off I was like oh okay I got to find another job and then um I saw like people that was really popular down there something called like sweep steak scams that people would do uh down there and basically they called people up tell
(10:00) them they won the sweep stakes and had to pay get their award I'm like thinking who's who going to fall for that like I didn't understand it but then I seen a guy like Costa Rican he didn't even speak English well and I'm like man he's driving a brand new Mercedes it was like over $100,000 car I was like it's crazy he's got to be doing something so I says lost a job you know but I was okay still riding my horse you know I was like okay got to find something to do so I went and I I worked for a guy who knew was in
(10:32) and I tried it out and boom made don't even know like $2,000 in one day I was like wow this is that easy and then uh I did a little bit more for him I went to work for somebody else and then I was like no I'm just going to do it myself so and then I had all the contacts when I worked at the sports book uh from my employees that got laid off and they already called me hey we need some work so I hired one guy we started with just one phone you know and and and um then it just took off from there it's crazy how one little decision
(11:07) kind of makes up the rest your life I I've noticed I've done a lot of podcast this is episode 120 something of my show and it's so I've heard many different stories and most people's stories always come down to one pivotal moment where they decide to do something and then they just you know isn't that wild how life just comes down to five or six or those Maybe most of the time it's three or four of those moments where it's like that if one thing Crossroad you can either go this way or you know right or laugh yeah it's wild
(11:39) man all right so it's for those of you that don't know Costa Rica is a hot spot for this kind of stuff like since it's you know it's not in the US they can kind of get away with as long they don't come back to the US right you can get away with kind of like the phone scams and all that stuff so this since I've been to Costa Rica and stuff like that I was aware of it but yeah for those you who are just some context for if you're watching all right so you see how easy this is you kind of put together your own crew right what kind of money
(12:10) starts coming in so at the beginning you know I come from a business background so for me I didn't run it like even after the fact and just don't get me wrong and now obviously I see all the damage that I did but at the time when was in it I didn't really see exactly what I was doing just thinking about the money I wasn't really thinking about all the cont consquences people that I hurt but at the beginning I just started myself and one other one other employee and then it just started to grow and then same I just ran like a business
(12:41) set up more offices um actually like because just people in the industry that industry are very kind of tough to deal with right so there was one fight to my salesman got in a fight so it caused me to open a second off go one office two offices then go to three offices at the end I had four offices I think I had over maybe 30 Sal employees and um it's a pretty decent Siz operation yeah so was you know I and it and grew tremendously I mean at the end government said loss amount was close to $9 million in what
(13:18) time span in four years wow it's a lot we were you still had 30 people by the end of it or how big was it by like so at the end yeah I had had four offices with 30 people divided yeah around yeah wow so as you're scaling what goes through your mind like is there ever a moment where you're like all right this is getting too much or you're like no all right I could keep this going like tell me a little bit how you went from like 100,000 to 500,000 a million like tell me so it comes to a point where remember a lot of the people
(13:55) that worked for me had families you know they had bills to pay um and kind of that's where the momentum hey I want to grow people come I want to grow and I don't just become let's just say we have a fronter and a closer I don't just want to be that they wanted to grow so it kind of took over a life of its own and it kind of ran like even though it was an illegal operation um it just ran like any other business and I did actually during that time I open um self-service frozen yogurt stores I was com the first down
(14:28) there I got that idea when was in like Colombia and Florida I'm like you know what I like this and um opened up when I got arrested I had three stores down there and um so I my goal was to really go legitimate and legal eventually that was the end goal um but it never it you know got to that point never got to that so you said Colombia did you live in Columbia for a while no I just used to tr like when I lived in Costa Rica yeah I would just you know in travel to Panama Colombia right next door yeah yeah yeah there's something about that
(15:06) area of the world man you know Panama Costa Rica Colombia so I don't know can't even put it into words it's the beauty of the of the nature and landscape and the people it's I can't even put into words man it really is such an amazing place I've been to Columbia and Costa Rica so I can I tell you been to Costa Rica three times I've been to colia once plan on going back soon hopefully and there's something about just everything those places you know it's not to mention if you're single you know the W the the hottest most
(15:43) desirable most seductive sensual women you'll ever meet in your life like you're just like I died and went to heaven you know I used to say joke around and say that uh the garden you know Costa Rica is like the Garden of Eden that's where it's at you know that's where Humanity was created you know the Cradle of it's so sick I love it and the nature there is beautiful the oh yeah you lived in San Jose yeah okay I've been to San Jose a few times the but coast like hako s Manuel Don Antonio that whole area is like nuts the beach
(16:20) and the malls flying over you I stayed at this place called the club dear in in hako and it was literally like I would open my door I'd see the beach Mall's flying overhead you saw some monkeys out in the it's crazy how beautiful that place is you know some the only thing I don't like is that the water's a little rough like there's lot of waves so you got to go more Manuel Antonio or other beaches yeah yeah yeah definitely so while you're there uh you see the operation growing it kind of takes on a life as its own
(16:53) you have to open all these offices uh is there ever a moment where you get kind of scared you hear like you're being investigated anything like that I didn't know about conspiracy that's a big one that's and yeah so that's a big one it's huge so what ended up happening in your case like did what they got to one of your like the feds got to one of your employe what happened was early on when I started I used to buy leads were a big the industry and it's not illegal to buy leads but that's kind of how the and this is by the Postal Inspector handles
(17:38) this um investigation so that's how they got my name and once they got an American buying Le Sweepstake leads in Costa Rica right I mean it was over from there so there was no um they subed an email address and it that had uh where I purchase leads right and my email address was in there and then the rest was just they built it on conspiracy and one day I was just flying in uh to um what was it Miami of all places Fort lord I can't remember Lord or Miami but I was Ring to Florida um you know for a vacation and to go
(18:17) shopping and just I first went off the plane I was flying business class and they said uh they were checking passports and they saw m says come with us what sir they says Oh no just ranom inspection and then once we got to the area they're like I heard him say the postal inspector's in and R I'm like oh that's it it's over and um there was it you know once they had the criminal complaint and once they had that I mean had so many employees and and and so many people that work for me you can't you fight in that
(18:52) component it's very hard to yeah fight and it's a conspiracy conspir mail and wire for on the ring and the arrest is over okay you know I'm I'm sorry I'm guilty so you said did time in County but that's fed those are the feds so I did got arrested in Florida but they charged me in North Carolina why because they say oh Western Union is based in North Carolina I never been there in my life but the money moved through even though most of this the way we laundered money was through United States postal money orders but still so I was in county jail
(19:27) for almost 2 years wow yeah okay so you come to Let's backtrack for a second is there ever a time because I I'm always curious it can go either way as a kid is there ever a time where you break the law get in trouble ever when you're when you're a bit younger like before you leave the country so yeah I was always looking to you know not say break the law but how can I cut a corner cut Corners yeah okay all right what kind of stuff did you do as a kid like you know trying to like in school trying to get the test answers ahead of
(20:05) time that's always a clear side you know trying to cheat on a test yeah um you ever seen that movie Slackers yeah of course that kind of stuff where like you knew you know break into the office and you look at the that's funny I mean I had um pranked one uh you know I'm not happy about it but I pranked one um this is when email was first coming EV they had Juno and you just create emails accounts so I sent it teacher an email from another student you know a vulgar email as well and uh you know and they come in to
(20:39) school and they want to suspend him because they think he wrote the email and um this was a teacher that like failed you in a class or something no I was just a joke oh you just you know for the fun of it that's fun yeah and then there but uh the the principal comes to me hey if you did this I think going to happen you just don't want the other kid we just don't want the other kid to get suspended that's funny you know but uh I was always I was looking for not necessarily in trouble but looking for for the shortcut shortcuts
(21:15) trying to think about the best way to do it gotcha you know yeah you know what's what I think is nuts about half of us or more than of us that end up we're just trying to make money that's really it we're just trying to like so there's a total positive side of that if we would have just applied that to the a different vehicle we would have been like a successful CEO in the community or something you know we would have been like a successful business owner so we have the right mindset we're just applying it to the wrong vehicle or
(21:49) applying it in the wrong way you know what I mean that's kind of what equate it to because my whole thing is you know my first inspiration in life was Tony Montana that's why it's called the T method and people always say oh yeah you know you're inspired by a murdering drug dealer no I'm inspired by an ambitious dude who hopped off a boat and said he was going to become a multi-millionaire and he did it that's what I'm inspired by I know not going to sell drugs and kill people that's that goes without saying what I'm
(22:15) inspired by is the fact that this guy literally had nothing and then he became one of the richest guys around period not even just the richest drug dealer so when I hear your story of a guy who has a special mind you're trying to connect the dots to get things done faster than other people and had you just applied it a little differently which you're doing now right you would have had a totally different result so that's why I love having these conversations because I get to meet really cool people with really
(22:41) qualities you know yeah were a guy who was like trying to connect the dots in a different way you know so but anyway all right so that's why I wanted to backtrack I wanted see if this was like a one-off or maybe if there was a little something going before you know is there a specific story that comes to mind when you were a kid that you like this kind of made sense like I know you said you sent an email and cheated once on a test or something but is there is one time where maybe like I don't know you did some came
(23:10) up with some like scam and you made some money and then I don't know tell me about that anything comes to mind as a kid not really you know I try to be by the book you know except I guess just looking to cut the fastest way possible okay all right and you come from like a totally to normal family you know good parents middle class parents yep interesting okay all right so you get caught in Florida they send you up to North Carolina you said did time en counting for two years A little yeah a little under two years are you
(23:49) waiting for trial and all that while that or so since I was like the first one and it was a criminal complaint and they were still investigating yeah it just and the prosecutors from Washington DC so they gotta fly in and there's no the court was it's North Carolina just their whole Court was backed up there's no rush the feds have two speeds slow and slower so there was no rush for them and that's actually normal that was almost a normal you know right normal was about a year and a year half mine was little little over that but yeah that's
(24:24) it's nothing like crazy cuz people were longer people were in the jail longer than that right so was kind of almost you know a little above average but not crazy average for the time that it took um you know and plus it wasn't like a small simple just you know case we were trying to negotiate the best um you know free deal and all that yeah really it was you know it's pretty clear-cut the guidelines and the guidelin but it actually worked out really well that I waited because it gave you credit time served no well during that time and this
(24:53) is just lock um they adjusted the sentencing book they rewrote it and adjusted the money table for inflation oh man had they known that was going to be adjusted for inflation they for sure they put exactly 8.9 million they would have made it higher because for the other people they made it higher so I saved two points on that which was they didn't see that coming and then the other points I save they changed like a victim enhancement um where they used to say oh if you're over two 250 victims you get Sixpoint enhancement
(25:27) and then they changed it no it's got to be like 10 victims of financial hardship so that when I signed my plea right they thought it was the prosecutors thought it was going to be more than what it but once they changed the sentencing guidelines they couldn't could do anything they couldn't do anything yeah that's awesome so what uh what's it like in County like how long did you spend in in Miami in County and North Carolina so Miami was just like a few weeks till to go so you did the bulk of it in North Carolina yeah so County Jail
(25:59) and it was rough a single cell okay um and it was mostly locked down you're talking about like 18 to 20 hours a day lock down [ __ ] it's basically solitary it's pretty wild uh I know did they have the whole wristband thing like feds you know how yep it was uh blue for feds yep and you mixed in with did you have they have you in a Fed section or they had you mixed in no they have you mixed in yeah so that must have been wild yeah I was the big minority over there that yeah I I've never did time and counting but I always
(26:38) get told like they always come up with a nickname for like the FED guy you know like big time or something whatever it was yes yeah cuz you're with guys facing months year I'm like man facing like life yeah no cuz the feds put up football numbers you know yeah it's wild and uh yeah but um it was nice I spoke Spanish too so that def that's right you lived in Costa Rica yeah how what Mexicans Puerto Ricans that kind of stuff um mostly in there it was in North Carolina Mexicans a little mix of other okay who' you hang out with
(27:08) in there CU I'm assuming there's not a lot of Jews not a lot Jewish guys in in North Carolina it was in one unit sometimes I was the only white guy in the whole unit I time so you kind of just hung around with so it was either like one unit I was out there just one like one white table mixed in I think we had a Spanish just cuz it mixed in so either the Spanish or just the white guy you know it was real the my heart Spanish guys must have been super surprised when you whipped out the Spanish yes yeah that's funny all right so but I'm get you a
(27:42) routine down just like everybody else right I'm sure uh you're reading a lot you how many books would you say you read to I don't even lo just it was just so many it a lot all day binge reading staying up I mean 18 hours night in a cell like that's wild more yeah and then sometimes more so chess too and then when I got out played chess yeah that was a great for mental exercise it was for me I loved playing chess man it was really good I used to play against these guys who had been doing time for like 10 years they used to kick the [ __ ] out of
(28:14) me man yeah but it's the best because you learn when you're losing learning you're getting better and the paralyze the parallels to life that I learned from chess they're really good I wrote down every time was like you you remember how I said life always comes down to one specific choice I noticed in chess it was the same the whole game comes down to one move and if you C capitalize on their mistake then you win the game but if they capitalize on yours the game's over is that isn't crazy yeah it's wild so chess yeah was I always
(28:48) tried tried to find a way like I wanted to exercise my body mind exercise my spirit so mental exercise was chess and reading you know I used to play a lot of chess so 18-hour lockdowns that must have been rough so you get sentenced so it took two years you got sentenced to what is s years uh eight 102 months so eight and a half years eight and a half where do you get transferred to so then I got went like the whole diesel therapy I think I went from it to Atlanta to Oklahoma transfer I went I've been to Oklahoma before so it was OK I
(29:22) think I'm not sure of that time it was Oklahoma or Atlanta I think it was Atlant Oklahoma that time and then to MDC Brooklyn and then from MDC to um Otisville Camp okay cool yeah so my was a little it was actually bigger than normal I had almost 500 people in my camp at one point how big was Camp Central uh Coleman Central Florida so I was in Otisville I did a lot of my time there and then I did the arap in Miami Camp okay so I got to really experience that's where you ran into Ross yep know yeah that's cool man Spencer Ross
(29:58) yeah all a lot of different people over there so yeah Spencer you I mean Ross is a Jewish guy from Long Island so you guys must have be like oh my God that's cool so during obviously we're comparing County to feton and that's like night and day right once I got to Camp it was like I'm free yeah right oh I got six years of this I'm good you know yeah compared to county that must have been crazy is the food better yeah I mean well in County Jail you I mean they give your caloric deficit oh my God yeah you get so SK um plus it's PRI it was the
(30:37) private Aramark Food Services I mean it's horrible and in Otisville was actually it was good you know so uh something i' since I've never been accounting I've only heard stories what um tell me about like the difference in commissary and like tell me the difference like I know obviously the already with being in the open air I don't know Otisfield does they have a fence no fence yeah the Coman didn't have a fence they said recently they put one up but anyway so tell me like what were the biggest differences you saw between like being in county and
(31:13) being in the feds I mean really just in the county jail you're just they only change your uniform I think T once a week twice I mean you know um you're just control they just you're only in one unit you can't move around at all it couldn't work out because if you sweat got to if you keep an extra uniform it's contrabands you want to work out can't change your clothes uh you know Commerce are is more you know expensive and um yeah you're just wearing sandals they don't even you know um it was just really take a toll on
(31:54) you you know physically and mental you know mentally too and know just really trying to with the books and the chest keep my mind just totally preoccupied and that was really the you know kind of living through an alternative you know through the books and then prison was I going to say I'm not going to say awesome but much better yeah but um you know compared to county jail I mean it was great they in Otisville they had weights I wish had both my prisons had weights when I was in Miami they had too when I say imprison working out was
(32:31) a was that the job I had great workout partners and it was really really focusing in on my physical health I read you know they had there was tons of books so there it was like a whole library before I had to like books were a scarcity in jail right they were valuable and that was another thing yeah like I always to get ordered books where people would be like please you know um you know same thing in jail uh newspapers were Val they us to get the newspaper sent to me so prison was and just so many interesting people
(33:02) especially noticed a lot of professionals lawyers doctors just all really interesting good people you know most people were just like me made one mistake right ended up there yeah they ended up you know and um so that was kind of the main and being outside nature was it up in the mountains you the deers and you know they had it was just you know being in tune with nature definitely really helped man let me tell you the fact that I could be outside and get fresh air I love that about being I reconnected with like Earth when I was at Camp had
(33:40) somehow you know business of life know your career and work this that and I lived in Miami so it's a city there's no nature there you'd have to go out to the like swamp Everglades something like that Central Florida is a little different there's a lot of nature being able to sit outside when this you know sun's coming up feel the breeze in your face birds chirping you know put your feet I used to take my shoes off and put my feet in the grass you know there's nothing like that I don't know how but you God's plan
(34:13) prison Recon connected me with nature it's like this Divine process that the world has you know in Miami and then I went to Miami Camp was never out I was outside all day my skin was like Chang colors it was dark there they had the weights when I was there so it was they had the track and there everybody was in most people were into fitness over there right it was like same like my I mean General the culture translated to the prison culture everybody was not everybody but most people into the fitness I wish I would have had weights man I
(34:45) have been pumping weights like twice a day that so that's what I did yeah right and then you sleep better everything revolves around the workout workout sessions I what did was we a lot of calisthenics and then we'd get Broomsticks and we tie either water jugs or bags of sand and that was our bench press or you know our little dumbbells so we may do with what had but yeah it was a lot of calisthenics and we mixing that stuff you know it was pretty cool so did you see what what's one of the did you see anything wildo
(35:17) down in County anything crazy yeah the biggest thing they cut off this I don't know they cut the whole year off but they cut a dude's ear off like yeah they got him um wow yeah and they what was the story do you know it did you end up yeah it wasn't very rarely I don't think saw it all any like random acts of violence right you know it was a guy and he talking trash um it was a you know black guy talking trash against Spanish guys and they're you know and just running his mouth and they got him on uh the the wreck area and uh there's only one
(35:55) guard in a unit so they got him out on the wreck area and then yeah they pinned them down and they they cut us here that's wild they the whole ear off I don't know you you don't really like cuz yeah but they got they cut yeah it I mean enough where they they're pressing Char they you know in that sense it was they did to Mark you know what I'm saying Point yeah and then another time I saw something really wild too like you know it's one thing you have a see I've seen fights you know but it's one thing to see like and what I saw was
(36:31) where they attacked one guy this is also in the same county jail where it was a gang fight and they um it was all like a bunch of um gang members on one guy and saying the guy was already on ground and they're still beating be him yeah that's when you right it's one thing to knock a guy out or fight once a guy is knocked on the ground and you're pounding your foot in his head and then a guard's coming in and they're not stopping holy [ __ ] cuz they're trying to pull them off but they're keep they're right they're coming
(37:03) kind of like shoving their that's kind of like wow that's you know that was not a wakeup call I like wow that's real violence yeah it kind of reminds you of where you're at for a second in case you forgot checked out you know that's crazy yeah it's uh that's definitely County Jail [ __ ] for sure that's kind of jail stuff and then I mean was in MDC so you know there you had I've seen I um they put me in a cell with guy that had shank you know and you're like oh you right I'm like how did you make that like for me I'm like well that's cool
(37:41) you know like it's pretty crazy he's like don't worry like it's m you know like it's mine you know yeah that's wild man it's such a so I did some research and didn't realize how lucky I was because fed when you compare feds to like state prisons it's not even one to 10 it's like 20 to1 there's so many more state prisons than fed and then if you go down to camps it's such a small part of the prison system yeah so I didn't realize how blessed I was to end up in the situation when I was and then you hear guys I'm sure once
(38:15) were in the feds you heard of guys know coming down from the pen or medium or the low especially in Miami they have like a medium and low right next door right a low the was next door yeah low that used to be like a medium and they turned it into a lower or whatever yeah did you any guys there who had done like a long time who had been in a while and like crazy story in the camp tell me about them um I mean just guess like this one friend of mine Shawn his name I mean he actually met him in County Jail North Carolina oh
(38:50) and then he they shipped him and then this is years later we were tight then actually helped me hire an attorney too my second attorney that's cool man and then we crossed past same in uh in prison it was like amazing right small world you see a guy in jail and then uh and then met him again in prison um that was an amazing story only because same we're still you know a lot of a lot of people that I've been prison with I'm still friends with today me too yeah you meet great people and majority of them have the same mindset and
(39:23) you know are either successful or on the way to be success right so it's really you know that and that's kind of you know we use ourself like kind of support you know system yeah and um you know so I really love you know a lot have still of good relationships um and even the ones that I don't even speak to like on a regular basis I'm still connected with and I can we're still friends you know even if we speak once a year or message here and there those memories and the relationships that be formed over there
(39:53) it's like your childhood friends and they just never they go away those memories me and Spencer talk about it that it's like people who went to the military or people who are like a Freemason or you went through an experience that other people don't understand and people you meet in there that went through that experience went to prison especially together with you you were in the same prison at same time not everybody but you for find friends in there and it's like your friends it's different a friendship because people don't
(40:27) understand what that's like you have to experience it I don't want anybody to experience it I'm not saying go to prison by any means but you don't understand it unless you go and it's it's like a special bond you know um for me it was similar you know I made lifelong friends you know people and it's crazy if it wouldn't have been for prison I would have met these these great people you know who led me to such great things in life you know is there any lessons that stuck with you learned in prison anything that like one
(41:02) piece of that you're like man you know and and you still carry it with um definitely more um you know patient you know patience and really thinking things through you know analyzing before I would just think oh can make money doing this or oh let me go do this and not really kind of seeing it all the way through and now I sometimes I over analyze now you know whether it be in personal relationship business relationships always thinking hey what is what's my end result where is this going to take me where is decision going to take me um you know
(41:42) because same that choice I made you know what that landed me in prison of going to you know open call centers um you know um put you really effect in my life so that's kind of where you know the one thing that that's really that I learned is to be patient and to really analyze and think things through um for me it was the same I would have to say spending so much time alone it beat kind of the impatience out of me like the time something about the time you spend in prison makes you patient because just everything there's no rush for
(42:26) anything which is good you can argue it's bad because you lose urgency but somehow that extended period of time you spent in there especially for me all the time I spent alone because spent a lot of time alone like reading and walking the track and that kind of stuff Patience by far has to be the best lesson I learned in there it's made me such a better human being because patience ties into so much right it could be compassion you could tie in patience to like working on a goal it ties into so many different things
(42:58) having patience with other people you know um I meet people all the time who have really grew up in hard circumstances and had tough situations and they're not exactly the most friendly people when I first meet them and because I have patience now and have compassion they become friends later like we become friends at a later point in time because I was patient enough to have compassion for their situation and saying man you don't know this guy guy maybe his mother died he just got indicted right maybe his life
(43:35) is falling apart maybe he just got diagnosed with cancer yep maybe one of his kids is in trouble you know so prison for me I think what had to happen to me I don't know if maybe you can relate I had to get dragged down such a bad place to understand how low someone else can be so that I never treat anybody else like that never put someone else in that place because someone else could already be in that place when they come into my life be someone who lifts people up not drags people down 100% that's exactly how I am now always thinking because
(44:17) hit that Rock Bottom I mean hit it and now um I really put always myself in the the shoes of other person and and and thinking how they would you know how they would feel MH yeah for sure so when did you go in and when get out so I went in 2014 okay and I got out in 20120 okay so did you first step act or cares act any of that stuff did that apply to you no I did rap so got the credit for that um and then I got like eight months halfway house so you got out did the pandemic start already like so the P I got out before
(45:02) the pandemic I was in the halfway house and um it kind of kicked me into home confinement earlier nice good so I didn't have to spend as much time in the halfway house and um and then um when I was working at the halfway house I always had dogs in Costa Rica so I always had a passion for the horses and then I got dogs actually had a home invasion when I was there and then um I got say you know what I had the money want to buy a personal protection dog so I bought one personal protection dog and I was like oh this is cool I could send a dog to
(45:38) attack somebody and I just like the whole um you know the training and everything I bought another one and then I bought another one and then I had three when I was in Costa Rica and um when I got arrested lost my dog know how much time so when I was in prison always you know I always had a passion for dogs and I said you know what I'm going to become a dog trainer and I would read books on dog training in prison um I had my sister send me magazines on like you know canine cop police canine you know dog training related magazines and then when
(46:11) I got out I went um applied to become a dog trainer at PetSmart when I was in the halfway house so I got the job working at PetSmart which was it like traveling did you go to a halfway house or I did yeah so with me it was a little different because I was supposed to go straight to home confinement cuz I I qualified for cares act what ended up happening was the guys at the halfway house didn't end up doing the home inspection like they're supposed to send you home and they dragged it out like two months bro they
(46:40) kept me there way longer than I was supposed to mind you I'm supposed go straight home just I'm supposed to check in there get my ankle monitor go home yeah they kept me there for two months you know how they don't want to work and they don't want to do their job what are you going to do so they kept me there for two months which was everything happens the way it's supposed to you know I run into a friend of mine that was did time with me and Coleman we reconnect he's doing really well now he's got a credit repair business that
(47:07) he's he's hitting uh about to have a baby he's doing really well me and him became good friends in Coleman so I'm glad we got to run into each other at the halfway house cuz that's then we had phones and were on the outside so could stay oh give me your phone number you know whatever so we stayed in contact and he's uh this Dominican kid lives up down in Brower County great guy he's one of those friends you know we always talking about business making money legal ways of like making it again you know we were trying
(47:38) to like all right we [ __ ] up don't want to end it so let's look for some good hustles always giving each other advice tips things we find out about real estate credit repair all these different things he knew my thing was podcasting that's what I wanted to do he was still trying to find his way of like what and then he ended up finding the credit repair business and he's doing great that's awesome you know he learned how to Market on Instagram he's really good with the Instagram digital marketing stuff he does his own
(48:02) marketing so yeah the halfway house was good for me also made a good friend which I'm trying to get a hold of now this guy named Blanco he's got a crazy story he was like in the Cayman and 80s smuggling cocaine and he's got this sick story I want to help him turn it into a book or you know TV series something yeah but I spent about two months in there and then I got sent home and I did about two months on home and then I got cut loose to probation how long were you on probation and how long was the halfway house so
(48:32) halfway house was 8 months but um I on probation for three years okay but what happened was so I working at petmart and then Co hit and they sent everybody home um send out halfway house but then the job fured me ah okay yeah so it was kind of really it was a bad thing but really a real opportunity for me so I already got a my feet wet little bit and then I just uh started training dogs on my own and um then from there just like you know with my prior business experience it just took off everybody got dogs and then from one
(49:14) client two three my schedule's full and then uh hired another trainer and then I hired a marketing agency um and then it just just took off you know and I got where got big I was like always had a passion I love and see that you love digital marketing for me it's fascinating Theology and um what I did is saw how the agency did and I says you know same with me cutting Corners I'm like hey why am I going to pay an agency do when can do myself so um and what I did is I hired workers in the Philippines um Freelancers there and
(49:56) this is co so every body was freelance and I just um you know Built My built my dog training uh business I had a lot of independent contract at the time and then um and then eventually I took out um you know I had enough Revenue took out a loan and open facility dog training facility in Long Island and kind of what also fueled me was you had a lot of dog trainers a people who knew how to train dogs but they didn't know how to run the business so what I did Sam just marketed you know um a lot through Facebook ads um Google and had my
(50:29) own marketing team over there in the Philippines um and then just uh you know grow you know just grew my dog training business and kind of now I have went over there actually last year to the Philippines I have my satellite office there so I also have like a virtual assistant agency I got like other 40 employees over in the Philippines that's awesome and we just kind of you know besides my dog training I have like a I sell protection dogs got into that have a school for people to become dog trainers that I was
(50:59) successful in the for virtual syens myself I have an agency for virtual syens for other dog trainers and um you know so that's kind of where I'm at now you know going back from being in County CH not a dollar you know just enjoying a Ramen soup um you know looking back know and kind of always you know um when I was in prison didn't really um have a sense of you know wanting to um you know go back to prison so I was kind of afraid like the gray area businesses so that's kind of also pushed me over to like dog training you know
(51:45) something where it's like you know what I'm going to do something where completely legit yeah completely you know helping people out something that that feels good at the end of day that's uh that's awesome man I love that how big how big is the company like if you if you had to like all how many employees how much revenue I have so we do I do over three million in Revenue um so it's probably in funny because I went to this conference a dog training business conference and probably one of the biggest individual dog training facilities and I
(52:19) done it I've only been a dog trainer for for I got four and a half years had facility for like two and a half years so I built it I've trained more dogs than most people train their whole life right so I built it rather fast and which isn't which is incredible and all the customers are happy I'm we definitely besides all the revenue and stuff invest heavily in the education of of myself you know uh training I finished like this Nao certification always getting myself better training my staff training them I always bring in
(52:46) consultants and really besides the dog training it's really on the education making sure for dog training is about big education for the owners so really focusing more on the education component of of helping the people live a better life with their dog and it's amazing because in that industry you get a lot of like testimonial reviews and life-changing stuff for people think they're dog you know they are I mean they're precious but dog a lot for of people dogs are like their kids or even higher pedest some yeah that's important
(53:18) I'm such a dog I love dogs could never be a cat person me neither I don't understand people who have cats uh they're the total opposite of dogs very selfish you know cowardly kind of always looking out for themselves dogs are the opposite they're loyal to a fault they'll die for you they're very Noble great with kids you know I love I love seeing families where the dog you see the dog like kind of loves on the kid and like protects has been with the kid since he was a baby you know I've seen so many different situations where you know I'll
(53:54) see like the kid is taking a nap and you see the dog like sitting by kid you know like protecting the kid or kid is like calling the dog and dog's trying to like warn him from something and you see them save from like getting hit by a car or an intruder or something there there's like a special spiritual connection there with dogs and humans for sure you know I'm more of a big dog guy but even small dogs small dogs are cool yeah but I'm more of like a German Shepherd Pit Bull American dog American Bulldog rotweiler
(54:24) kind of guy great even things though those are huge but yeah I love yeah there's something special about having a dog and you know special relationship there I love it is any kind of specific you just like all dogs or I mean have like German Shepherds malinoa so I'm a big dog guy yeah but um really any I mean all dogs but you know it's nice to have a dog that is smart that's you know has workability and also like some dogs I have just like same they're loving but they're also like independent they like and then you have
(54:58) nice to have a dog that is compassionate and and loving you know Elliot it was great having you on I uh I always wrap up asking the same three questions so question number one what what inspires you in life so what inspires me is um just being you know helping people um know making the world a better place um you know and you just doing it you know one day at a day at a time you know being for me just being my better version of myself uh every day I can totally relate knowing that someone could watch this podcast and get
(55:40) inspired by a story that was told here someone I'll never meet know who they are that's pretty inspiring having such a big impact that you can't even count you know or get to everybody that's you've made a difference in their lives it's inspiring to me for sure question number two what's next for you so is really kind of focusing more on um the education component and also the uh for me the uh virtual assistance and the expanding to other niches and you know um you know being in a service business is great but you're kind
(56:16) of sometimes Li you know limit Limited in a way so really e-commerce and going that route um you know definitely for the vision for me and then hopefully moving back um you know to uh columia now we're talking right where the weather yeah I mean that's my angle is you know get back and start giving enjoying my life enjoy you know enjoying the weather focusing you know I do now but focusing more on my you know physical health yeah for sure Colombia May everybody's moving to meing now that's like the thing you know I
(56:49) have a friend of mine who lives in meding it's such a great place it's the last vacation I took I'm due for another one soon let's see if I go last question how do you want to be remembered um really remembered for me and looking where I'm at now is just how many people that I can help you know live a l live you know better life and for me it's right now transforming their dogs um you know and it's an emotional real emotional thing helping them with that and hopefully um you know more and more I just started doing like
(57:23) social media you know about more of my story kind of the transformation coming out prison and now being s you know on my way to success being successful is um you know inspiring people that hey it doesn't matter how the bottom you know you hit the bottom know can still rise to the top it just takes you know good mindset you know hard work and and one day at a time and it could happen 100% I remember a long time ago one of my mentors told me if you help enough people get what they want you'll everything you want it's true words have
(57:57) never been spoken Elliot this was a pleasure to have you on thank for coming and we'll do this again sometime sure awesome thank you for having me I really enjoy really appreciate it definitely man how can people connect with you um yeah just U my Instagram uh Elliot Rosenberg and my company uh you know one of my main company K9 Mania dog training sounds good all righty guys another episode of the Montana method podcast special guest Elliot Rosenberg push you to limit the world is yours if you're not chasing a dream life is
(58:29) meaningless guys catch you on the next one say good night to the bad guy great episode bro good stuff thanks yeah yeah really out here any streets that's day and night 2 like there's nothing to it when I was going through it dog never got your call I never asked for nothing all how I want it promise I'mma do it came from Rags to Riches Rags to Riches came from Rags toes came from