• At 11 years old, his parents got divorced and Jake became the man of the house - 6:44
• How Jake ended up in prison in Miami - 21:00
• Jake’s cell getting searched by a prison guard and using psychology to his advantage - 49:54
• How Jake traded a pack of cigarettes for a copy of the book Waking The Giant Within - 53:45

Peter (00:00:00):
You're listening to the PK experience podcast where I tap into the minds of today's impact players so that you can learn from them, be inspired by them, and make a greater impact in the world yourself. My name is Peter King. I'm the host of the show. And my guest today is Jake Cortez. Jake's story is so fascinating and inspirational. He was born in Cuba and made his way over to the United States where he unfortunately found himself in and out of the prison system. Uh, upon his third visit for a five year sentence, he exchanged a pack of cigarettes for a book called awakening the giant within, which is a Tony Robbins book. Um, and ultimately led him to, uh, invest more of his time and energy in the Tony Robins community, which is where I ran into him and got to know him a little bit more, and then obviously invited him onto the podcast.
Peter (00:00:45):
Um, like I said, his story is extremely, uh, inspirational. The determination and courage that it took for him to push through life's adversities is, is awesome. But, um, Jake is also one of those guys that just, uh, he's a warrior and nothing's going to stop them. And I love just being around guys like that. Uh, he now is crushing it in sales and can also help you with your public speaking and or one on one coaching, um, which we'll get into that a little bit in the call. Uh, but it's an honor to have him on the program and uh, again, very inspired by his, um, tenacity in life. So why don't we dive into the call here. I am with Jake Cortez. All right. I'm here with Jake Cortez. Jake, welcome to the call man. Thanks for having me. Yeah, I'm excited to talk to you. You've got a one hell of a story, brother, a witch, which I know a little bit of, but I don't know. I don't know, you know, the extent of it. Some, I'm excited to hear a little bit more about that and some of the transformations that you've made and what you're up to in the world. Thank you for that. What a happy 20, 20. Where are you at these days? Give me a, give me an overview of what you've got going on in your life and, and we'll just start there.
Jake (00:01:58):
So I'm in Phoenix, Arizona. Currently I'm consulting for a solar company out here. My core competency is sales. Um, and, and cultivating an experiential flow of the, well I think through the business one where the client has not only a pleasurable experience but also becomes a raving fan cause we all know that it's easier to retain an existing customer and have them purchase from you again than it is to obtain a new new client.
Peter (00:02:27):
Yeah. You know, it's funny how often businesses overlook that myself included in you work so hard to get somebody in the door. And then the next, you know, you, you, you're so focused on the sales pipeline that you forget about the retention and the raving fan. So how do you, how do you go about doing that?
Jake (00:02:45):
So one of the ways that we go about doing it is just making sure that actually it's, it's easy, especially coming from the world that we come from. Like, let's say we, we met through the Tony environment, right?
Peter (00:02:59):
The Tony Robins environment for those who are not familiar. Yeah, I've met a lot of interesting, fascinating people through the [inaudible]
Jake (00:03:05):
Tony Robbins and Tony talks about the hierarchy of needs. You know, the need for certainty, the need for variety, the need for significance, the need for love and connection, the need for contribution, the need for growth. So how, when somebody's needs are met, three of their needs are met, it becomes an addiction. Right. And why are Tony's events always jam packed and is he, Oh he's always selling out his events because he's meeting all six of people's needs at the event, you know, significance, conscious love and contribution and growth and certainty. And then variety. All of these needs are met. And this is why a lot of Tony Robbins clients or new clients are, are his existing clients cause they get so much value. So how, how do you package that into the business that you run? And you know, some of, one of the things that we do is we do a raffle. We'll give away a free trip, either international or here domestically sort of client who decides to go solar meeting their need for variety. I'm certainty that they're going to get exactly what we said that they're gonna get, you know, significance. If they, if they want to do a video testimonial, we'll, we'll let them do that.
Jake (00:04:31):
Fascinating man. Um, you
Peter (00:04:34):
had a part of, one of the reasons why I wanted to talk to you a little bit further is we've had some conversations offline about your experience, sort of where you started from. So why don't you share with listeners a little bit about your background, um, your, your upbringing and we can kind of walk them through the transition and transformations that you personally have made. Cause I find those to be very inspiring.
Jake (00:04:58):
Oh, thank you. Uh, so I grew up, I was actually born in Pasadena, Texas. Uh, I lived there for about two years, then moved to Culver city, California. From there we moved to Lancaster, California and I was there from kindergarten all the way on to fifth grade at an awesome, uh, experience there growing up in the desert. You know, chasing tumbleweeds and snakes and all that fun stuff that a young Boyle do. Having rock fights with the neighborhood kids. Um, then we moved to Houston, Texas and things kind of started to unravel between my parents, but, you know, we, we didn't know, uh, they're never really fought in front of us. Um, I grew up in a traditional Cuban household. Demand works. My mom stayed at home. She was, uh, the homemaker. I have two younger brothers and a younger sister and you know, while in Texas, you know, I to experiment with, with marijuana.
Jake (00:06:00):
You know, at that time it was just, I was listening to Nirvana, God smack a stone temple pilots. I got into the this skater scene and I was, you know, doing that, going that whole path. And, you know, I was always a [inaudible] kid, but as long as my energy was channeled in sports and all of that other stuff, I, um, I wouldn't get into trouble. But when it wasn't in sports and academics and all of that other stuff, you know, I would do stupid crop, like setting a tree on fire in the park or some stupid thing, you know, um, at 11 years old, which I'm grateful that the, the situation occurred at that point. It was too hard for me to fully comprehend. But my father sat me down to the couch and he says, Jake, you know, your mom and I are just not working out.
Jake (00:06:54):
It's um, you know, it's, it's challenging time, but you're now the men of the house. And uh, he left the next day and I didn't know what that meant at 11 years old. I just wanted to ride my bike and do what other kids were doing and all of that other stuff. And then we immediately moved from Houston, Texas. Actually at that time we were in Pasadena, Texas. We moved from Pasadena to Miami, Florida. So here I had a hard pivot in my life and how the family was doing. And then I come to Miami, which I had already started engaging in some like mischievous behavior and the kids in Miami, the school, you know, these kids are shooting crabs out front of the school, you know, doing cocaine and drugs that I had never seen or heard of. And, um, I just, I, I started to slip, you know, the morals and the values and the principles my mother raised me with, started to get compromised because I said, well, if my mom is so righteous and she believes in God, why could she w [inaudible] and believing in God got her this, why do I want that for myself?
Jake (00:08:13):
And I really feel that my father at the time had betrayed the family and it cut, it was a cut real deep. So instead of me, you know, buckling down and doing things that I was, it was beyond my, my intellectual capacity at the moment and being responsible for the family. You know, I started to rebel either in violence, uh, drug abuse, alcoholism, crime, and, um, these repressed emotions because it was my dad's a macho guy and you know, Rocky came out, we'll be Rocky, came out and were over the sink. Me and my three brother, me and three of us are over the sink. We're eating raw eggs. And now me and my middle brother, we're in the, we're in the living room with the boxing gloves and we're duking it out. Okay. You know, and I was taught, men don't cry. [inaudible] if men are not careful when they tell their boys certain things, what, what a young adolescent boy will, will interpret as is, it's not socially acceptable to have certain feelings. And that social acceptability, eh, for me, what ended up happening is these emotions became repressed because a man doesn't talk about what they're hurt, what's hurting them. A man doesn't, doesn't crumble under pressure. A man deals with his stuff all on his own. This is what my young mind had believed and it was, it became too much for me to bear. So I would find my escape. And, uh, you know, the drug scene in Miami, the club scene and, and just, Oh, I became a weekend warrior.
Peter (00:10:02):
Miami seems like the perfect place to just go down and destructive. I mean, there's so many, there's so many temptations and seductions and you know, it's, I used to live down in South Florida and it's so vibrant and colorful and beautiful and the people and the energy, it's like that, that Latin influence is beautiful and wonderful in many respects. But man, if you're [inaudible], if you're struggling a little bit, I can see how that could take you some much.
Jake (00:10:29):
Where else? Yeah, if you want it, you can get it in Miami. So that's, that's the, you know, they have a, they have a liquor store. Actually. It's not even a liquor store. It's a window that serves alcohol 24, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Christmas, Thanksgiving. It doesn't matter what time of day as you walk up to the window, they'll sell you.
Peter (00:10:53):
Oh, that's great. That is crazy. Um, so just real quick, are you, uh, were your parents both Cuban?
Jake (00:11:01):
Yes. So my dad was born in Cuba and my mom's mom was born in Cuba. So I'm first generation Cuban American. Okay. Yeah. And I feel like I hit the lottery being born in this country. So tell me about that. Why? Well, my mom sent me to Cuba when I was 20 years old, probably. I was out of prison probably for like four or five months. And that was an eye awakening experience. I was there for 11 days. We didn't sleep in a hotel. We slept that family's house in Santa Clarita and Havana because w we, it would be a slap in our family's face if we rented a hotel because they wouldn't even be able to come and visit us in the hotel because they're not allowed. Residents are not allowed in the hotel where the tourists are. So we went and stayed with family and I was brushing my teeth one morning and my family member comes out and they see that I left the faucet on and they said, Hey, what are you doing?
Jake (00:12:08):
And I'm thinking, well, I'm just brushing my teeth. What? They don't do that here? They're like, no, the water, you have to turn off the faucet because when the water's gone, it's gone. Oh man. And then taking a shower, there's no hot water. You got this big aluminum thing on the roof that catches the rain. Water. Toilet paper's a luxury [inaudible] I went to my cousin's house in Havana. I drank a strong cup of coffee. I love, I love coffee in general and Cubans love their coffee strong [inaudible] so I've finished this strong cup of coffee and went to the restroom. Just a, it just took a piss. And then I see that there's this thick stack of paper on the toilet. And I was like, Oh, okay, cool. My cousin does his homework in the, in the restroom. And then I go to, I go to my cousin like, Hey, I see that you do your homework in the restroom. He's like, no, that's what we use to wipe our self with you. Gotta wet it. And then he started to show me like, like you got to wet it and you got to make it pliable and, and my stomach was already turning a little bit from that cup of coffee and I was just like pleased or, Oh man.
Jake (00:13:29):
So, and then also you want to call the United States, you have to go to [inaudible] house on the corner. There's only one phone for the whole neighborhood. And when you call out the United States has to accept a collect call. Dude, it was like a prison.
Peter (00:13:45):
Oh, you're, well, and that's the thing too is like you're landlocked. Obviously you have limited resources. You obviously have a embargo from the States. And that would be, yeah, it would be a whole nother world down there, I would imagine.
Jake (00:13:59):
Dude. It is. It's like traveling in time. You get off the plane onto the tarmac, you go into the parking lot, you see nothing but 50, six, 57 Chevy's. It is like traveling in time
Peter (00:14:13):
as things have recently loosened up a little bit with uh, the past administration, Obama and everything, opening things up a little bit more. Mexicans have started to go back down there. [inaudible] from what I've been able to see, obviously there's the difficulties of life and whatnot, but the people seem vibrant. The people seem relatively happy, all things considered. And I'm, I'm not in no dismissing a lot of the other oppressions that are there. But, um, what, what was your general take overall with the people themselves?
Jake (00:14:42):
I think that they have a deeper sense of contentment even with their lack. Hmm. And when I went, this was in 2002, they don't know what they don't know. Hmm. Okay. And you know, I was watching TV for about an hour and then I, and then it dawned on me, I'm like, where were we? I asked my, my cousin, I'm like, Hey, where's the commercials? They says commercials, who's going to compete with Fidel? And then it died on me. He owns everything, everything. So no matter how I'm trying or stressful or anxious or or depressed or whatever it may be that I might get, it can never be as bad as the day that my grandfather woke up and realized that his business that he worked so hard to develop and build and feed his family with now belongs to the government. How did they get over here on a boat?
Peter (00:15:49):
Yeah. I did a makeshift boat and
Jake (00:15:52):
roll the dice and O's. It was, it was a good boat. It was, you know, he, and he made like eight or nine trips. Wow. Life bringing family. Yeah. My grandfather was a gene man. He like, he and he created a faction within the family because he was like, screw this. I'm outta here. His father was like, no, no, no, no. Stay, it'll blow over. It'll blow over. He's like, no, he didn't speak any English. Came to this country and worked hard until he couldn't work anymore.
Peter (00:16:26):
That's amazing. Uh, having lived in South Florida, a lot of people, a lot Americans don't really realize, but it's, it's not an uncommon occurrence for a makeshift boat to show up on the shore. Um, you know, there's a lot of Haitians that, that have come over. Um, and with the, I think it's still in place at the, I think they call it the dry foot act or something like that.
Jake (00:16:50):
Yeah. Trump, Trump rescinded that.
Peter (00:16:54):
You did. Oh, interesting. So what's the status now?
Jake (00:16:58):
That's, I don't know, because technically it's still a communist country and we wouldn't send people back because it's a communist country right now. If the regime changes, all of those people that made it here on wet foot dry foot would potentially be sent back. Now, I don't know what the current status of that that process is, but I know that wet foot, dry foot was if a Cuban steps foot on any American soil, they were granted. Mmm. I guess like temporary residency, but as long as they touched ground, cause if they're caught in the water, they're sent back.
Peter (00:17:47):
There was a, were you aware of one case? Uh, when I used to live down there, there was a boat that came over and, uh, at the South of Florida around, uh, like the homestead area. There's that I think is the longest bridge in the world that goes down through all the keys. And there was that one boat that hit an old piling that, uh, didn't have the bridge on it, but still had this cement block in the water that was, I dunno, maybe a quarter of a mile from the, from the shore. And people had jumped out and they were standing on that cement piling. And then that's when they were apprehended. And it was like, well, is that dry foot? Is it wet foot? Are they on the, and there was this huge, I was like, Aw man, can you imagine having to, to prove, you know, your freedom based on some technicality like that would've been, and you know, people that died on that trip over up there, the one young boy's mother had drowned. She had fallen off. Oh man. We take so many things for granted here. The luxuries of freedom,
Jake (00:18:46):
so many things for granted. 300 million Americans, there's 7.6 billion people on this planet. 3 billion people at any given moment would probably trade places with the worst day you could potentially have of the year. Your worst situation. There are 3 billion people on this planet and in any given moment that would trade places
Peter (00:19:08):
heartbeat. Yeah. Cause it's crazy to think about sometimes. Um, so you were telling, uh, telling the story of how you moved to Miami and you kind of got caught up in, in a, an alternate scene down there. Um, what did you, what did you get in trouble for? You said you went to prison for a little bit.
Jake (00:19:27):
So I, at 18 years old, you know, I couldn't, I couldn't really keep a girlfriend. I couldn't keep a job. Uh, it was just like one of these situations where I didn't think I was better than the job. I just knew that if it doesn't work out, I'll get another one. And that's kinda how I felt about relationships as well. You know, if this works out fantastic, if it doesn't, no sweat off my back. I'm really not looking to get married at that age or anything like that. I wasn't thinking long term anything. So I had just quit my job at Eckerd's on impulse because they told me to get off the phone and this was the beeper days and I was getting a bunch of TA tags, you know, with all these beeper codes and you know, right before a week and, and I'm setting, setting up deals and on all these things and I think like I'm the coolest, coolest kid on the planet.
Jake (00:20:22):
And she's like, get off the phone while you're ringing customers up. And I'm like, I can do both. And she, she left and I stayed on the phone. She came back and she was a little more angrier than, than the first time she arrived. And then I just in my hot headedness I just went up to the office, I took my shirt off, I gave him my shirt, it was Eckerd's shirt and I say, you know what, here you do it. And I just left, but I had a car note to pay, you know, a few days past. And then I was like, all right, so I got to pay this car note. Okay, that's a bummer when you do it on the phone and getting phone calls. But, uh, I got this car note to pay. What do I do? So one morning I had an option.
Jake (00:21:11):
I could go get a haircut, go put a suit on and go apply at burdens. I'm aging myself and um, or I can do it with the neighborhood kids dead. And what I got away with when I was younger, I really didn't, I wasn't doing it at that time, but I could rub the house. Okay. And [inaudible] I didn't want to, I didn't want to go get a haircut and I didn't want to shave. I didn't want to do any of that. So I just basically put on the clothes I had. I still remember to this day, blue pants, a black shirt. And I looked at myself in the mirror that day and I knew I was at a fork in the road and I had a choice. And the choice that I was intent on, there was a high likelihood that I would not be coming home. Well, I'm not going to say hi because I wouldn't have done it, but I knew that there was a chance that I wasn't coming home that day.
Jake (00:22:11):
And there was that, it's almost like you have a soul, like a, a conversation with your soul. And it was a very, there wasn't like speaking or anything like that. It was just like a look in the mirror. You're about to do this. You, you, you realize what you're about to do. And I yep. Um, I'm going to do it. And I left that day, I went to wake up my friend Frank, poor Frank. So I went to wake him up sleeping in the living room house, smells like cat piss. I'm like, you know, Frank, get up, let's, let's get this money. And um, we took half of Xanax to kind of take the edge off and we just picked a house and I got caught coming out of the house with a, a safe and I was charged with unoccupied burglary, grand theft. And then while I was in there, I got indicted on another unoccupied burglary. So they were gonna let me out on house arrest, a year house arrest in two years probation. Cause it was my first offense as an adult. I was six months into my teen birth.
Jake (00:23:25):
Yeah, I'm off to a great start, you know. Good job Jake. Now you're sitting in jail, you're being, you're being interrogated by detectives on another charge. So you're sitting here on a charge and then you're also indicted on another charge. Greg freaking job. You're you, you're doing, you're doing all right. And you know what I knew leading up to that, I knew two things were going to happen. One of two things were going to happen. I was either going to end up in the Marines or I was going to end up in jail, prison and far worse, potentially debt. Hmm. Probably like six or eight months prior to that, I ended up in a psychiatric ward overdosing on a bunch of drugs they had. They had me four-point restraint to a hospital bed just interrogating me. Like what drugs are you on? What's your name?
Jake (00:24:18):
I wouldn't give them my name. I give him my friends named James Ramirez. There's like a thousand of them in, in Miami. And um, I wouldn't tell him what I was on and um, they kind of like took what they needed, the blood and the urine. Like I wasn't giving them anything that, let's just say that process sucked. Is this w is this like tied down to the bed type cetera? Yeah, I was four point of restraint to a hospital bed and they're like, listen, you know, we can do this one or two ways. We can do it the easy way. We can do it the hard way. We prefer we do it the easy way. We'll, we'll, um, we'll unrestrained your, your two arms and your leg and you'll, you'll just stand up and you'll pee in this cup. And I'm like, I'm not giving you shit.
Jake (00:25:09):
And um, okay. Then they just, I was still for partner's strengths. Somebody sat on me and they stuck a catheter in, am I a, I'm a penis. And that sucks that, that hurt. Like going in, that was one thing. But coming out, I'll never forget that in my life. Oh man. Um, so that was like six to eight months prior to me ending up there. The signs were there, you know, these are cries for help. Yeah. Nothing else. So then when prison, when, so when they offered me a year house arrest and two years probation. Okay. I'm thinking like, yeah, it'd be great to be at home to eat my mom's cooking, but having an anklet ankle monitor and having to deal with the temptations of friends coming over and leaving and I can't go with them. And then the biggest thing was how would I get the full forced of this experience?
Jake (00:26:12):
How would I get the full dose of this experience if I'm cheating, you know, like if I'm cheating myself out of this lesson. And I said, you know what, I don't want the house to Russ and I don't want the probation. So just give me straight time. And then this way when I'm free, I'm free. [inaudible] and then they sent me to prison. And uh, so I was in prison for just shy of two years. You chose two years in prison over as opposed as opposed to a year of house arrest and two years probation. Wow. That probably doesn't happen very often. Yeah. No it does. It probably doesn't. But Hey, you know, I was already in and out of jail between 16 and 1516 and 17 you know, I'd already gotten into a school fight at 15 I got into a bunch of other Fides parties, clubs, you know, all these other things, and I just knew that, you know, you got to wake up, Jake, you got to wake up.
Jake (00:27:14):
And I didn't. I didn't, I didn't. I wanted better. But wanting better and doing better are two different things. Yeah. At that age, man. That's tough. And especially with, was your father still an influence at this point or where was he? My father at this point, it was more of a friend than, than, than then somebody that I listened to. And then if you try to exert some sort of authority at that point, I just put him in his place because I had no hair on my tongue at that point. He had lost, he had lost a lot of my respect due to what I classified as betraying the family hair on my tongue. I don't know that I've heard that saying, is that an era here? Am I telling me any like I don't, I wouldn't hesitate to say exactly how I'm feeling. Right.
Jake (00:27:59):
You know, like my dad came to visit me in prison and I said, listen, there's a big difference between the relationship that I have with you and the relationship you had with your father and the relationship that he had with his father. His father was pretty hard on him. And um, you know, he probably in his earlier stages had the feeling like his father didn't believe in him and instead of living his life outside of what his father wanted him to do, or what his belief, his father's beliefs were, he set out to prove himself to his father. And I told my dad, you know, like, I can totally understand how that's a big deal, but I don't have anything to prove to you. Hmm. And it made me, I'm a man in a different way, you know, four walls became my, my father, my disciplinary Ian fighting all this stuff. I became, I became a man by asking myself certain questions in some very dangerous dark places.
Jake (00:29:00):
What, what were some of those questions and what was some of the darkness? So a weekend too, actually being shipped to a juvenile prison, I got into my first fight, stewed with a bunch of gold tee tattoos everywhere and you know, it was a good fight. It was a good fight. He wasn't expecting me to, he was, he probably wasn't expecting it. And um, you know what, while I was in jail, I spent nine months in jail before they shipped me to prison and I was reading the Bible and I was going through the process. I really wanted to be saved. Like I really wanted too. I really wanted my salvation. I wanted it bad enough to seek it out. I read the Bible, I was reading, reading, reading, reading, memorizing parables and Proverbs and all of these things. A lot of people who go to jail or prison, they seek out religion as a form of protection or acceptance because they now know that their life has gotten hit rock bottom and they need it.
Jake (00:30:07):
And I never wanted that to be the situation that I call out on God. When God was with me all the time, I just kept silencing the voice, silencing the voice, silencing the voice. I did it because I know that at that age that he had always been with me. God didn't put me through that. As a result of my decisions, I was going through what I went through to learn the experience that I learned. And I got closer to God when the noise and the distractions and the drugs and, and all of that stuff was no longer a no longer in my, in my field. So when I went to prison, I put the Bible up and I said, God, unfortunately, uh, you know, turn in the whole cheek thing, that's just not going to work here. I love you. But, uh, I gotta do what I gotta do.
Jake (00:31:00):
And that was it. I, I was committed to making sure that any point, if anybody disrespect to me, that I, I make sure that, that, that they knew that I wasn't the person to mess with. And being of Cuban descent and Hispanic stick together, the blacks, you know, kind of stick together, they kinda click up from based on where they're from in Florida or whatever. And then unfortunately, um, being American in a Florida prison, being white, you're the minority and it's not going to be a good ride for you. Um, so when I say dark, um, could you sync up with other Hispanics or did you where you know, well, African-Americans automatically assume that I'm white because of the way that I speak and I'm not like your typical Cuban. So I would, I would probably end up in more fights than most because of that.
Jake (00:32:01):
But yes, I would typically hang out with Hispanics. Cubans, Puerto speak fluent Spanish. I do speak Spanish. Yes, that has been Spanish. So the darkness came because, all right. I already grew up with reinforcement around physical aggression. And believe it or not, since I didn't have a way to release, I wasn't big on psychiatrists that after a school fight at 15 years old, they sent me to a psychiatrist. They just prescribed me Prozac. I had already decided that, you know, these people probably wouldn't be able to guide me through my challenges. So I didn't have any faith in that. And I w I was committed to figuring out my stuff, like figuring however, whichever way that that came. So just to kind of, something's up because I don't want to spend all those podcasts on prison. But I ended up, um, ended up putting, sending somebody to the hospital while in prison and they ended up putting me in confinement for a year.
Jake (00:33:10):
And it's not like I just randomly chose this guy. This guy was a bully. And when I first arrived to that prison, you know, he tried me over a cookie, like, like it was almost like in the movie life with Martin Lawrence and Eddie Murphy, like [inaudible] same type of deal, but over a cookie. And I really didn't want to fight. I just got to that prison from the other prison and I was doing my best to avoid it. But it happened. And then I realized that I had really, really, really screwed up because they, they upped my custody level. I went from like maximum two closed, which means that I have no interaction with people in open population. I'm just closed custody means you're now in confinement 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And uh, I was 18 turning 19 and uh, I'm now being housed with murderers, rapists, people that are never going to see freedom again. You know, I'm showing my pictures and then it's his turn to show his pictures and he's never going to hug his family free ever again. And he was 24 at the time. So that's the type of darkness I was talking about.
Peter (00:34:33):
[inaudible] uh, yeah, dude, I was just talking about this with a friend of mine, um, how social animal we are and the need for human interaction and connection and talk about, you know, we started this conversation with the human needs and that need for connection. I would imagine that that would, yeah. Take you to a fairly dark place if you're isolated. 24, seven like that.
Jake (00:35:00):
Yeah. Yeah.
Peter (00:35:03):
What was a, so what was the pivot point for you? I mean, you, it sounded like you were seeking things out. Was there a, was there a major pivot point where you got on a healthier path or, um, when you got out of prison, how did things start to evolve for you from there?
Jake (00:35:21):
So I mean a year in confinement, you know, 16 different cellmates, five of them had life sentences. One had HIV, you know, like at that age, aye created survival mechanisms, which was training every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday that they would take us out of our cell to shower. So Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays became my workout day and in a six by eight cell on my room, my cellmate is on their bunk. I'm doing my 500 jumping jacks, my 250 pushups and my 500 crunches every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. This is, this is my ritual, this is my, this is how I love my body. And in there, it wasn't a matter of aesthetics and all the, you know, the whole beach bod and all the mirror muscles. Now this is about my quickness, my speed, my agility, because I have to, I have to fight for my survival.
Jake (00:36:26):
So this is not a a question of do you want to, it's you don't have a choice just because you don't know who it is you'll next have to rumble with and how big and how quick they'll be. So you don't have a choice. So I mean, I'm 165 pounds soaking wet in an adult prison where you know, the average weight is maybe like 200 pounds. So it began there like what has come of your life, look at where you are. How did you get here? Your mom didn't raise you doing all of these things. You were raised with good values and principles. Where did you go wrong? And the reverberations of the thoughts bouncing off the wall. We're just in my face like it's clear as day. Let's, let's start making the changes necessary to have a better life. And then I've also had this visions even since I was younger, me in a suit conducting business.
Jake (00:37:33):
So when I was faced with choices to do things that I did as a, as a youth, like drugs and all this crazy partying I had to pick is do, do, do, do I want this temporal gratification or do I want permanent satisfaction? And for me that vision is kind of what held me through, you know, like holding onto that vision of myself during those types of things. So at 18 while in confinement, I read the whole Bible cover to cover. I would study the dictionary and learn 20 new vocabulary words a week and learn to use them in proper context. I didn't have the role models, I wanted a model in there. So I looked at everybody who had the results that I didn't want and I watched what they did and I did the opposite. They watch TV all the time. They complain and blame. I do neither. They talk about people instead of ideas and concepts and aspirations. And I just, I committed to not doing those things until I can find the model, the person that I wanted to model myself after [inaudible] hard knock university.
Peter (00:38:48):
Yeah. A lot of wisdom at a, at a young age.
Jake (00:38:52):
Yeah. Yeah. I, you know, through and through, no matter how you cut it, you know, three times. And I went to, I went to prison three times seven and I spent seven and a half years of my life incarcerated. I consider myself probably more blessed than the average person
Peter (00:39:11):
because of the, the school of hard knock lessons.
Jake (00:39:16):
No, because my, it could, it could have been far worse. Hmm. It could have been far worse. I could be dead. I could have been shot. I could have been stabbed on many occasion. I, you know, yeah. Even for even worse, you know, like in prison, 165 pounds, you get caught in the wrong spot. You got three dudes weighing 200 pounds, you get raped, you're done. Yeah. You're done. Yeah. And I've, I've heard people getting raped, like help, help. There's no hope. You better know how to throw hands, you know? Yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's the, it's the jungle. If the animal kingdom and I learned very quickly, the less you say, the less they know and the less they know, the more, the more they try to figure out because it's better to attack somebody that you can get a read on. Then it is somebody that you don't, you haven't quite figured out yet.
Jake (00:40:18):
So I, I called them, waited an era of stoicism. Like if I didn't know you, I'm not really friendly with you and I wasn't really just trying to get to know everybody. So it created a survival mechanism. And if I can take all of these things and relate them to business, if I can learn to read your gestures, look you directly in the eye and get a read on you, whether you're full of it or you, you know, you, you actually have something and you're capable of doing something that gives me a leg up in business. You know, a lot of these things I have figured out ways of how they translate into the business world. It wasn't,
Peter (00:41:03):
I was just going say I, I it seemed instinctually, I feel like there's a lot of people who are wrapped up in crime who would make excellent entrepreneurs. I mean there's many, many, many examples of that cause these are people who are bucking the systems who are not going to be told what to do, who take risks, who, you know, like those are all attributes of an entrepreneur. Um, have you found that to be the case when it seems like a lot of those things are actually the things that empowered you in the business
Jake (00:41:31):
world? Tony says, the best people don't fail for lack of resources. They fail for lack of resourcefulness. And I am probably one of the most resourceful people that you will probably ever encounter. You know, I've had to rebuild myself four times, like lose it. Oh. And entrepreneurship, you know, even Mike Tyson says something that I love. You know, everybody's got a plan so they get punched in the mouth, right? Entrepreneurship, you will get punched in the mouth and it's going to hurt in life. Feels like it's falling in, falling in on you. What do you do? And in those things, those situations, thankfully, you know, having the life experience that I do, I don't lose, I don't lose my, like I don't lose it. Like I, it's, it's, it's very, a lot would need to happen for me to lose my cool because I know that I can't do anything if I've lost my ability to reason and, and, and, and focus on the best course of action regardless of the situation.
Jake (00:42:36):
My, my motto is as long as I'm breathing, there's always a solution. And I created that in there. And then also Tony Robbins and date with destiny has his old primary question thing. I wasn't familiar with that. I had no idea what that was. For those that aren't familiar with that, can you share real quick what that is? So we all as a result of our life experience, whether, you know, when we're younger and we're growing up and we just want to feel accepted and fit in somebody who's primary question, if that's a big deal for you is like what are these people thinking of me? And then if you've, if you've kind of like had that internal monologue long enough and you've kind of set that into your central nervous system, it's like a question that becomes your guiding, your guiding question that's asked that that's asked on a subconscious level continually.
Jake (00:43:31):
Like what is this person thinking of me? Do they like me or am I am am I saying the right things to be liked or [inaudible] then you now everything that you do and say is centered around getting people to like you and for you to be pleasing people and then you turn into a pleaser and then you have that whole cognitive dissonance around, well I do everything for this person and they still don't give me any respect or appreciation and all of these other things which create a, a, a, a slew of other challenges. My primary question by the grace of God was how can I find meaning in this? Hmm. And at that young age, going through those processes, getting out of prison when I was 20, getting into a fight in South, going back to prison for another year, getting two years probation and then getting out and then going back to prison for, you know, DUI manslaughter, which was an accident that, do you know, if there was anything that I would want to take back, it would be that, you know, Mmm.
Jake (00:44:51):
So I was committed to turning prison into my university. My brother went to the university of Miami. You went to the, you know, I don't know how one person can do this, but once a FSU and umm, so, uh, but he did it and it worked and he got his education and now he's, he's doing really well in life. But when I'm sitting there in the courtroom and the, the judge says, Jacob pen or random sensing you to 15 years state prison upon you turning yourself February 2nd, 2007, we're going to admit it, mitigate it to five years prison, followed by five years probation. Have a good day. I have to [inaudible] really assess what my life had become and how it got there. My brother went and he made good choices. He made you made better choices and I didn't. So these were, these were the consequences of my actions and it was time for me to face the music. Hmm. Um, and I was committed to turning, you know, jail and prison into my university. So much so that I studied, uh, I, I went online cause I had 30 days on the street before I turned myself in and I found a university that does correspondence courses. So I took an intro to psychology while incarcerated.
Peter (00:46:15):
Fascinating. I would imagine that you'd see a lot of, uh, the psychology would be a, uh, a superpower, I think to some degree or give you some advantage in that type of
Jake (00:46:24):
environment. It's like a Petri dish of a, you're like, you're in a Petri dish, you know, your, your scientific studies, like you're able to just kinda one of my favorite books all time favorite books is man's search for meaning by Viktor Frankl. Yeah. You know, and he says they have, they have the means, but no meaning they have enough to live but nothing to live for. And it was, I could see when I look into the eyes of somebody and see that they have already, they've basically given it up. Like it's just a matter of when they go, like they just, that's so creepy to think about. Um,
Peter (00:47:15):
uh, so I, I want to just jump forward a little bit so we can kind of point this in the direction of, of your full transformation that you were talking about the Tony Robins event. How, how significant was Tony Robbins, uh, [inaudible]
Jake (00:47:28):
your,
Peter (00:47:29):
uh, sort of pulling it all together for you? Did you feel like you'd already gotten your life where you wanted it and then this was just an, you know, leveling up or was there still some significant lessons to be learned that, that, that helped?
Jake (00:47:43):
I will be a student of life until I die. I'm not perfect. And the more that I know [inaudible], the more I realize I don't know shit. And Tony Robbins, I love this man. Like I see Tony Robbins is a general like leading, leading a war on, on, on things that need to be dealt with, like sexual slavery and, and, and, and feeding, you know, people that are, that are less fortunate. You know, and I was a fighter. I've been a fighter all my life, but you know what, I'm fighting myself. Yeah. You know, and I asked my question, I asked, it got to a point where I'm sitting in confinement and I was considering committing suicide because it was just the suffering sucked. And, and then I started to think about it like this whole process, like, okay, so I would get the trustee to bring me a razor, probably need to give him some cigarettes or some stamps cause that's currency. All right? And let's say I get the razor and I slipped my wrist and I bleed out in here.
Jake (00:48:49):
Then what? And how do you know what's on the other side? Like how do you know that the other side is actually better than this side? And then wait a minute. So you're going to end your suffering, but you're going to cause more suffering. And your mom, your family. And I said, man, you little bitch. You, yeah, yeah. I said, and at that moment I said, you don't, you don't even have the luxury of even considering that you, you created this, you're going to get yourself out of it. You're not, that's not even something that you would ever consider against. So the moment that I made that decision that that was never an option, it was figuring this stuff out. So I'm going to tell you a story of how I became probably one. I consider myself one of the most blessed people on the planet by having this made this discovery.
Jake (00:49:45):
You know, one day an officer came to search myself and they're searching, they're tossing everything up and I don't even know what he's looking for, why they're doing this. And I was like, sure, if you just give me an idea of what you're looking for, maybe I can help you find it. Kind of be a little bit of smart ass. But I was in a private prison and I know they can't put their hands on you cause I paid to get shipped there. And if they did put their hands on me, I would write a letter to their largest shareholder, but I was going to go to the media and all of this other stuff. I had a plan because I was physically abused in other other institutions, so they take me to the cap and the captain says, we're putting you on an investigation.
Jake (00:50:21):
I said, for what? He says, we don't have to tell you that. Take them away. So they're escorted me into the cell and I was taking the intro to psychology and there's a term and psychology called a relative deprivation. It was a, it was a term coined by Benjamin leave Wharf. Relative deprivation is where you, you compare yourself to somebody who has more money, is more successful or seems in a better position. What ends up happening is you create this sense of you feel deprived, you feel less than unworthy. And with my primary question being, how can I find meaning in this, and I'm being in squirted into this solitary confinement cell, nothing but a metal bonk, a metal toilet and a sink and nothing else. That question goes to work with my [inaudible] reticular activating system, which this process in the brain, anything that you are geared at, anything that this is activated on, you will find things to confirm or validate what it is that you're seeking.
Jake (00:51:31):
Your brain just works like that. There's a million stimulus is all around us, but once this RAs is set on a certain thing, it just like a serve on them missile. It finds those things. So how can I find meaning in this? And then I say relative deprivation, it's where somebody compares themselves to somebody who's who's less fortunate or somebody who's better off, who has more money, is more successful. I said, wait a minute. Well what would be the flip side to that? And I said, well, how many people are on the planet? At that time it was probably like 7 billion. And I said, how many million Americans? So 300 million Americans. Let me, let me grossly overestimate here and say that there's 2 billion people on the planet. They're afforded the luxuries that we have here in the United States. I got running water in the sink. I have a blanket, a pillow, a roof over my head, air conditioning and room service that's going to be delivered to that flap in the door. How many billion people would want this situation right now? And I was able to take a situation that could have been classified as maybe the top five worst situations and find the gratitude and appreciation in that situation and re take the charge away from it and was thankful to God that I had what I had. And in that moment it altered the trajectory of my life forever.
Peter (00:52:59):
Damn dude. That that's so empowering like living like a King in a fucking jail cell. That that mental switch is so profound and so significant. Have you, you'd need to be, you need to write a book.
Jake (00:53:18):
Where is your book? I'm working on, I got about a hundred pages, um, five, six chapters and I, uh, I love writing. I love communication in general. So fast forwarding a little bit, they ended up releasing me six days later. They, they didn't have anything. They didn't formally charge me with anything. They didn't even say, you know why we put you in here? And they just let me let me go. Six days later, not a month or two after that, aye bought a book. I bought awakening the giant with them with a pack of cigarettes. I didn't smoke cigarettes, but that was currency. You can get anything you want for cigarettes in prison. And I used to use it to trade for food, so a whole pack of cigarettes for awakening the giant within. And I voraciously read that book. I devoured that book. I, I said I want, I want maybe on a, like a subliminal level, like I want to meet this man.
Jake (00:54:19):
And I didn't know if that was possible or what that even was, but I read that book cover to cover and I did everything you told me to do. Right? My personal goals, my contribution goals, toys and adventure goals, my business goals, and I still have that to this day. And a lot of those things I've accomplished in 2008 I made it my goal to attend his program date with destiny. Seven years later, December, 2015 I'm at date with destiny for my personal date with destiny. And I started to deal with unresolved trauma. The pain, the hurt, the, the, the things that I just never chose to deal with. And that was 2015 by the end of 2016 I put $15,000 to join his platinum partnership. Hmm. And I got to meet Tony Robbins in India and there was a situation I had been going to his events since 2014 and I never raised my hand to take the microphone because I knew that there were people in that room that needed that microphone more than I did.
Jake (00:55:26):
But there was an opportunity where it was like the time that I, that I had a chance to speak and I spoke and he and Tony even teared up and I told them and I bought his book with a pack of cigarettes and he really did change my life. Like he was the man that I wanted a model. I don't want a business just to have a business if I'm not impacting people's lives. I don't want to do it. Like if I can't make a good living and help people in the process, why am I here? Yeah. What kind of impact do you see yourself making today with what you're doing? So I speak in prisons now. I went back to the same prison I was released from, spoke to 60 guys there. You know, anybody that's looking to enhance their speaking capabilities, go speak in prisons. You've got a captive audience anywhere.
Jake (00:56:24):
Yeah. Had a 60 guys. Only one guy was sleeping. He looked tired, man. He looked like he was wearing it on. But it was, it was a big deal. You know, here I am a guy that you, a few years earlier, let's see, that was 2016, five years earlier. I was in that same institution. Wow. So there's a lot of anxiety. There's a lot of stress, there's a lot of, uh, mixed emotions around your release and when you get around certain people, if you're going to be able to have enough discipline to say, no, I don't do those things anymore. And all of this other stuff. You have all of that in that whole process of reintegrating. And I just, I feel my calling is to go speak to the, the, the youth that are incarcerated. And I did that in New Mexico. I've been in there several times, a youth center because my heart is really with the kids to give them a brighter outlook on their situation and know that, that there are people out there that believe in them.
Jake (00:57:29):
You know, if I, and that's what, that's when I was in there. There's probably like 10 or 15 of them just looked each one of them in their eyeballs and say, I believe in you. You know, I want, I want kids to know that they can accomplish whatever they set their mind to. We have all of the resources that allow that to be available in this. And if, if any country, this country for sure loves the underdog. [inaudible] you know, and eh, you know, I deal with challenges around like either voting or I just got, my, just was granted my right to drive again after 12 years. You know, my life was hard, but I don't look at it like being hard because every situation that made me figure things out outside of what people do normally, it just became, it just forced me to become more resourceful. And I always, I always look at things as what's going to allow me to competitive edge over every other 38 year old that's doing the same thing or in the same category. What's going to give me the leg up?
Peter (00:58:44):
Have you seen the movie a count of Monte Cristo?
Jake (00:58:47):
Yeah.
Peter (00:58:49):
Yeah. Some of your story reminds me of that. And, and, and uh, taking those darker moments and finding, you know, I think there was a scene where where he's just getting, uh, whipped and shit, you know, he's chained up and, but you can kind of see the wheels turning like this is, this is my moment. This isn't the worst. Like, this is the, the shaping of who I'm going to become and the becoming a fuel to [inaudible] to have ultimate redemption and salvation within. Uh, it really reminds me of your story, which is, Oh,
Jake (00:59:22):
it's, it's one of my favorite movies. Yeah. Yeah, go ahead. So I came to the realization very, very early on that prison was just the physical manifestation of what I had going on, internal and I, and it wasn't like, it wasn't like it just happened. Like I created it, the four walls, I had that inside, cause hatred and resentment became the foundations of the cell that incarcerated my soul long before I arrived in prison. And my freedom came because now I was able to free myself through prison as a result of being, having enough time to assess my situation, the decisions I was making, the people I was hurting, the person that I had become and, and asked myself if I wanted to continue on in that fashion. And when I had a resolute no, it was okay. So what now? And um, I just became a student of life.
Jake (01:00:31):
So I said to myself, I'm not going to be able to get a real estate license. Says, I'm not gonna be able to get a mortgage broker to be able to get a series seven series, sell any insurance. So how do I maximize what I'm already good at? Which I was always good in sales. I've always been great in sales. So, and one of the things that I was shot for, I didn't shoot to be number one in every organization that I was in, which that just happened by proxy is how can I be an effective communicator? How can I be the most effective communicator? And I said having an extensive vocabulary and then understanding that psychology, like people form their impression off of you based off what they see first and then what comes out of your mouth that will either confirm that perception or they'll reevaluate.
Jake (01:01:31):
And I sent to myself, okay, three times in prison, some in a few years, I'm not going to allow society to put me in the category they want to put me in. I'm going to put myself in the category I want to be in. So I started forming certain, you know, connections and relationships, but it wasn't like in a, what can I get from you? What can I give you? It was what type of character do I have to focus on? Who do I have to be, you know, you know, I never wanted, I would never put myself in a position where somebody would challenge my integrity, you know? Cause now for me, it's, I have more to prove.
Peter (01:02:20):
What was your, um, I know recently that you've, um, gotten married, uh, and, and if you could just share with me really quick, you know, relative brief version of, of your, your evolution in relationships and how that relationship evolved. Cause I, I S I kind of saw it from the outside looking in and you know, when I first met you in the Tony Robbins world, you know, we didn't really connect that much or whatever, but, you know, I, I knew you were single at the time and then ultimately, you know, and you just seem so happy. And I was just curious what, you know, how that evolved.
Jake (01:03:00):
So it was probably like [inaudible] okay. Uh, I wasn't released from work release longer than 30 days, and I ended up in a relationship, which was the really cool girl. Her name was Corina, but we would constantly end up in fights that would go nowhere. You know, that energetic, um, the high energetic poles would like dissipate, but the situation was never resolved. Like it's not in relationships. Arguments and disputes will happen as long as a positive resolution takes place. It was a learning experience, but for four years, um, you know, it was kind of like a [inaudible] and exchange in some sense as some people have that type of relationship where it's like, okay, you know, I don't want to be alone and you're not quite the person that I want to spend the rest of my life with, but I'm going to deal with this because I don't want to be alone.
Jake (01:04:05):
And in my situation, I couldn't drive and she made my life extremely convenient. She'd pick me up from everywhere and drive me everywhere, scheduled my doctors, dentists appointments, just made my life extremely convenient. So on my side, it was a relationship of convenience and hers, probably comfort and security. And I was having a conversation with my Tony Robbins coach and I was expressing some of the challenges I was dealing with in my relationship. And he goes, have you ever written down the values you're looking for in a woman? And I said, Nope. He goes, this is what I want you to do. I want you to write down the 15 values you're looking for in a woman. First five non negotiable. If she doesn't have any of these five, just keep it moving. Second five, maybe one or two are interchangeable. You're writing them in the order that you value them.
Jake (01:04:54):
Last five negotiable. Now here's the kick. Okay, that is a, that's an important list to have. But this list is more important. The 15 values of the man you need to become for this woman to show up. Hmm. [inaudible] and I did that. That was probably, I dunno, 2013 or 14. And then in that same trip that I got on the microphone and I was sharing an experience with Tony Robbins and how you changed my life and, and uh, the experience I just had with this meditation, Anastasia was sitting in that room and we bumped into each other in the hallway. This was Jaipur, India. She's like, Hey, you know, I really appreciate you sharing your story. Mmm yeah, we're just had a little small talk there. And then she's like, do you want to train in the morning? That's like asking me if I want to eat, you know.
Jake (01:05:56):
And I said yeah and those events run long. You never know when you're going to finish. And then that night it ended at three. But in order for us to actually get the workout in, we'd have to train at like 6:00 AM. And I said, listen, I know we ended late last night. You might not make it. That's okay, but I'm here. She texted me right back, I'll be right there. Boom. So I'm in the weight room there and I'm doing wood shops. Cause I love, I love working on my core. And um, I see she comes around, she puts her stuff down, she goes to grab the weight and I go to change the wafer and she goes, no, leave it. And I was like, well in my head I was like, maybe I should tell her this is my normal boy.
Jake (01:06:46):
And as she's doing the late, but she's, she's got those little shoes, socks that have the fingers, like the little toes. Like it's, it's almost like you don't, yeah, it's kind of like a sock, but a shoe with grip on the bottom. Yeah. So she's kind of doing it, but she's slipping a little bit. And if I was a guy with a big ego, then I would just stand back and let her fail because she's slipping so much and say, Oh, you can't do the weight. But I could see she, she can do the waist. So I got down on one knee and I was holding her leg so this way she can do the weight and she did it. Then I had this compounded AB exercise, like five exercises in one. And the last exercise you do, 20 of the leg raises where you're just throwing your legs up. And I did 20 and that was the last portion of that exercise. She said, give me 10 more. I said, I just did 20. She's like, give me some more. I was like, all right. Okay. What's going on here? You know, I'm getting pushed in the gym by an extremely attractive woman, woman. And um, so then on the next set she's holding my legs. She's looking at me, stare directly in my eyeballs and you know, just beautiful blue eyes, blonde hair. And she says, work bitch young at work makes the gig done. Yeah.
Jake (01:08:13):
Jeez man. And um, so that list, I didn't waste any time. I said, listen, you know, I showed her my list. Believe it or not, she was every single one of those values. All 15 of them,
Peter (01:08:26):
15 G can you give me like the top a couple of the top two or three?
Jake (01:08:31):
Yeah. Understands the value of conditional love. Okay. Capable of understanding the value, understanding the value of unconditional love. Unconditional. I've got it. Uh, having the capability of sustaining a happy home. Um, I know the fifth one was health and appearance conscious. I don't, I don't know them in order, but the beauty of this process, just like that Tony Robins exercise when you write it down, yeah. It's just like it etches in your subconscious mind and it's there. It's done. I wrote that list three years later and I never revisit it. Three years later we meet. And then on top of that, because I grew up in Miami, relationships were never a challenge. Like meeting women was never a challenge. We have all of this, we have tender, I was on Tinder, hotter, not POF, you name it. I was on it. And um, I had created this little process, you know, there was a book called the secret language of relationships and that book will match you, not by your, just by your astrological sign by the month, but by your birth week. And out of a 52 week year, I was only compatible on a marriage level by this book, which I kind of believed in with four weeks. And out of those four weeks, I was only happy with one matchup with just so happened to be the same week she's born in. Okay.
Peter (01:10:05):
It's my, my father's into some of that and it, you know, half the time I'm like, Oh, this is just, you know, we'll, we'll bullshit whatever. And then stuff like that happen. You're like, all right, wait, what? Like let me revisit this again. Like, is there something actually here or not? Like, but regardless, a coincidence or fate, uh, it happened at manifested and,
Jake (01:10:30):
and she got in your life work and it's, it's been an exciting, a very fruitful, very awesome relationship. Um, you know, she looked at her, she's Russian, right? He was born in Ukraine. Yeah, she's Russian. She's born in Ukraine, lives in Sydney, Australia. At that time I was living in Miami, Florida. We met in Jaipur, India. We got engaged in Spain,
Peter (01:10:57):
we got married and my mom did, did it take for you guys to get engaged once you, once she said worked vintage from 10 to one [inaudible]
Jake (01:11:04):
two years. Okay.
Peter (01:11:06):
[inaudible] but you knew, you knew then
Jake (01:11:08):
that morning that this was so many different somebody supposed yeah, I like knew right and there in the gym. Like I like I always had a challenge with people like, Hey you guys have been married for 25 years. When you guys met, like what was that experience like, how did that go? And then, and I'll get, I always used to get, you'll just know and I was like, okay, that's not going to work for me. Like you'll just know like what does that mean? And then I had my, you'll just know moment. Yeah, yeah. There's an energy there that is a palpable, Oh so palpable. Like even like the music they had was like hip and trendy and the gym and we were just, it was just her and I, we even like started dancing in the gym. It's crazy. Like our young child, like energies were just just alive and having fun and enjoying each other's company.
Jake (01:12:05):
We didn't have that feeling like we were like, we met each other in another life for, you know, like we know each other. But there was definitely a palpable connection, uh, on a very deep level. Yeah. Fascinating man. Um, I know, I know we're right around a time that you had mentioned this book, Savage pipeline. So it's not a book. It's a, it's a company. Got it. So for the last 20 years of my life, I've been in sales. I spent a decade on over the phone sales call center operations. So Savage marketer is my buddy Jeff. He's the Savage marketer, I'm the Savage sales men. And together we formed Savage pipeline cause who doesn't need a Savage pipeline for their business? So we come in and he handles the marketing in terms of building the funnel, having the brand message meet exactly what it is that they're seeking and provide.
Jake (01:13:09):
I'm on the other side with the experiential flow of the client. Once they become introduced to the company, how they, how the company reaches out the sequence of events that we automate between emails and texts to just guide the life of that client through their business in a way that cultivates that raving client experience. Hmm. Hmm. Well, who's your ideal client? My ideal client is somebody that's, you know, probably met a plateau, $1 million in revenue and is looking to take their business to the next level. Um, and, and looking to automate sequences in terms of probably getting the most output with this automation and wants to relieve the burden that they have on their plate with managing all of these processes, overseeing salespeople, redoing their training, uh, redoing their branding so that this way this message is felt on the other side and just kind of kept consistent throughout the company.
Peter (01:14:18):
Got it. Um, fascinating man. If somebody is interested in that and or contacting you, where can they go?
Jake (01:14:26):
Well, you can find me on Facebook, Jay Cortez or you can find me on Instagram, the J Cortez, uh, S or Savage pipe line.com. Submit your information if you feel like this is a good fit for you. We like to strategically align with brands that we believe in. Believe in. Currently we're working on grant card, Dawn's funnel, Tenex health systems. He's got a big event happening in the end of February or streamline medical group, which this is like, this would be a podcast for another time. Uh, I'd like to introduce you to one of, one of my partners, Gary Breca, uh, who was a mortality expert for 10 years. Takes your blood lab and can tell you how happy you are, what, what capabilities you have to experience certain emotions. Just all based, everything's in your blood. And I've been working with him for the last two minutes, get into two months getting my physiology dialed in cause I'm really big on health. Yeah. I could not be half the salesman or half the businessman that I am without having optimized my health.
Peter (01:15:29):
Absolutely. We'd love to talk to him. That would be a fascinating conversation. We'd love to have him on the podcast. Amazing. Yeah. Dude, this has been such a pleasurable call for me. Like this is in a lot of respects, this is kind of the epitome of what I want this podcast to be. Um, somebody who's been through hell and back to at least from some perspectives, the transformations that you've made, the impact that you're seeking. Um, but even maybe more importantly, your ability to, uh, articulate it and share the lessons along the way so that we can pay that forward and, and amplify that. So, um, thank you so much for, for letting us in a little bit. Insurance, some of the, you know, the, the experience, your experience and transformations. It's been fascinating.
Jake (01:16:16):
Thanks for having me. So anybody that's looking to, um, two things here, anybody who's looking to optimize their business to get to the next level. If you just want a conversation about Jeff and I can jump on a call with you. Anybody that's involved in helping the prison system or you know, has a family member in the prison system. I have a website called mind hack habits.com. And we have a nonprofit organization that's geared more towards the youth, um, that are actually on their way in prison, in prison or getting out of prison. And our mission is to pro provide education, resources, tools, and assimilate some of newer technology and get them up to date with the technology so that they actually have a fighting chance in today's world.
Peter (01:17:00):
Mm. Did so needed, so, so needed, um, massive respect for that. Appreciate you brother. Appreciate the time today and I look forward to our next conversation.
Jake (01:17:10):
Awesome. Have a great day, Pete. All right, man. Have a great day guys.
Peter (01:17:13):
Thank you. Bye.

Websites
https://www.mindhackhabits.com