GoodFellas
We help our listeners discover what it means to be a modern man. We focus on how to heal and grow past mental, physical, and emotional traumas. The goal at GoodFellas is to provide men with the tools for us to thrive, not just survive.
Episodes release weekly on Thursday at 2am PST/5 am EST.
Throughout the show we invite the audience to meet some interesting and impressive humans who have navigated some of the deepest valleys as they journey to some of the highest peaks. Join me, Hosea Chanchez, as we seek to discover the GOOD in humanity and uncover some of the secrets to living a purpose-filled life.
About the Host:
Hosea Chanchez is a prominent actor, producer, and director, from Montgomery, Alabama. Soon after graduating high school, he relocated to Los Angeles, California to pursue acting. He immediately began booking commercial roles which kickstarted his career, where he has found long-lasting success.
He has appeared on shows like Girlfriends, Black Lightning, and All American, but is best known for his starring role as the quarterback football player, Malik Wright, on the CW/BET sitcom, The Game, and its 2021 revival.
Hosea has built an impressive career over the years and a large fanbase as a result. He started his company, A Very Good Company, in 2022 to provide black men and women with luxury products, reliable services, and quality content.
GoodFellas
Ep 107: Unshaken Belief: A Story of How Faith and Belief Overturned Sixteen Life Sentences with Corey Jacobs & Hosea Chanchez
Ever wondered what it takes to turn a life burdened by 16 life sentences into one of hope, freedom, and impactful change? In this episode, we sit down with Corey Jacobs, who shares his extraordinary journey after serving 17 years in prison. Raised in the Bronx by his loving and resilient grandmother, Corey overcame the odds, transforming his life from a path of despair to one filled with gratitude and purpose. His grandmother’s unwavering support was pivotal, and Corey’s story is one of resilience, mental strength, and the power of love, resonating with anyone facing challenges of their own.
Corey’s transformation didn't stop with his release. He became a powerful advocate for justice and reform, founding the Buried Alive Foundation and successfully lobbying for clemency, securing freedom for himself and 60 others. His journey from despair to hope and from hope to action demonstrates the profound impact of faith, community, and personal growth. Through his work, Corey continues to inspire change, offering a masterclass in turning adversity into advocacy. Tune in to hear how his incredible story can empower us all to strive for a better world.
And then the phone rang. I pick it up and I'm like hello. And my lawyer, she's like hey, corey. And I was like hey, corey, you sounded jubilant to myself, you know. And she was like I said are we winning? She's like yes, we're winning. She said yes, we're winning. She said we're winning. She said yes, we're winning. She said we're winning.
Speaker 2:Goodfellas is a simple mental space to heal and grow by a black man. For everyone who's listening, I'm Hosea Chan Chaz, and this is Goodfellas. Welcome to Goodfellas. Welcome to Goodfellas. I'm your host, Hosea Chanchez. In today's episode, we're going to speak to one of the most incredible men I've met on my journey, and I mean that sincerely. This brother in this episode will not only help a lot of black men, it will heal a lot of humans in general. This man was incarcerated for 17 years and had 16 life sentences. Stay tuned. We're about to talk to Corey Jacobs about his entire life and how he turned lemons into lemonade. Corey Jacobs what's good.
Speaker 1:Everything is good, everything is great. You know, I'm blessed, it was just my birthday.
Speaker 2:Everything is good, everything is great, you know I'm blessed it was just my birthday, Happy belated.
Speaker 1:I appreciate that. I appreciate that, yes, sir.
Speaker 2:Thank you for spending this time with me, with us.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:You have an unbelievable amount of things to be grateful for, yes, your life and your journey. You are one of the most interesting men I've met on my 40 plus years on this planet. Wow, and I mean that honestly. So thank you for having a conversation with me, with us, the world, yes, about your story, brother. So you've actually overcome some things in your life that most men not only couldn't fathom, but couldn't make it through. Not only couldn't fathom, but couldn't make it through. Hearing your life story and what you've been through inspired me so much more to be present in my life and to be thankful for every single day that I have, every millisecond.
Speaker 1:Oh, Day there's 25 hours in a day.
Speaker 2:See, I know, come on.
Speaker 1:yes, it's a lot that can be done in a day Like right now. We're together, we're talking, we're in LA, we know that we're going to be broadcasting out to people that's going to hear our interaction and what kind of energy. How can we impact people's lives with the conversation?
Speaker 2:Yes, sir, and energy is a thing that you're really big on. I love that about you and your story and your energy. Yes, I want to talk about your story before you were incarcerated, before we get to your clemency and being pardoned. Right, who is Corey Jacobs and where are you from, brother? Yeah, well, I'm.
Speaker 1:Corey Jacobs. I'm from the Bronx, New York, Born and raised. I was raised by my grandmother. My father is from Africa, immigrated from Africa when he was 12 and, you know, worked at a food stand. And Corey is just, you know, a person who made decisions that you know that changed the trajectory of his life, but I didn't let it define me and I'm much better for it.
Speaker 2:Amen to that. So, growing up in the Bronx, did you and your family feel, did you feel like an immigrant in any way, or did you just feel like a black man making it in America?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think my formative years was very rough, you know, because my father went to prison and then my mother you know she lost her way. You know what I'm saying. And then I had to end up like so many grandmothers got to take the burden and raise their grandkids when the parents fall short. And so my grandmother is really like I have a saying, I call it, we did it, grandma, and that culminates my journey and something we could talk about. But she's the person who instilled all the morals in me, the values, and taught me so much. A lot of times you like she's older, you're thinking like you know, grandma, you don't know what's going on.
Speaker 2:You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 1:She's like no listen, I used to go to Apollo and she started pulling out pictures. She's like yo and I would have escaped a lot of like hardship, right. So you know, but obviously it's hindsight. You, you know, you, you. I look back on those times and I just you know, and I really appreciate, you know all the things that she instilled in me and that's really why I'm the person I am today.
Speaker 2:Amen to that I connect with you so many ways, but this particular instance is something that I identify with my grandmother raised as well. My parents weren't uh, they were younger, so they weren't as present, which I'm so grateful for, because it feels so much better to have the upbringing of a stable human being. I always say that grandparents are God's way of giving parents a second chance, right right, right, yeah, because they already did it one time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so so now you know, if you have a young mother and a father and they're trying to figure out life and they got a young, you know a young son and me I was the only child and sometimes there's a lot of like you know, you know missteps. That can happen, right, and the grandparents are there a lot of times to pick up the pieces.
Speaker 2:That's right, because they're just people who have children yeah, no, they're all of us just with yeah, extra baggage.
Speaker 1:No, trying to make it 100.
Speaker 2:Your grandmother was a heavy influence in your life, was your grandfather around at that time.
Speaker 1:Yes, he was. He was very, you know, it was like the best of both worlds. My grandfather was a very huge disciplinarian and he was in the war. He was actually like the first captain of corrections at rikers island in new york wow yeah, so I didn't know this growing up. I just thought he was like a police officer or something.
Speaker 1:I thought he might have been like a cop, basically you know what I'm saying. I seen a billy club, a gun, and I was just like he always was out, you know, late nights, and I'm like damn you know. But later on I realized that he was actually a correction officer in one of the most in the biggest prisons, in jails in new york city, right, and he was an african-american, right. So he was very like. I walked through the house, I used to have to wear my slippers and you know he taught me how to iron and you know and all these different things I needed to survive as a young man. You know how to type and you know and all these different things that I use today, right, like typing.
Speaker 1:Everybody's like I'm like both hands right and that was because the early years they always made sure I had those tools yeah you know, to that I needed right to take care of myself, not to have to, like, rely on anybody to you know, clean up after yourself and all these different things that you kind of need as a man to be able to do I can identify with in your story.
Speaker 2:Reading about it and we're going to talk more in depth about it I can identify with the favor that's over your life and it seems like this favor has been there since you were maybe a young man, a young boy yeah, yeah, did you feel in some way special, or did you feel like, through it all, that there was a part of you who was protected by something I, I do, I do.
Speaker 1:I think my grandmother right, I remember like so many different things, like my mom, sometimes she would leave me in the house and not even come back and I'd call grandma and I'd be on the phone and you know she'll send a taxi for me and I go to her and she'll hold me in her arms and she'll just rock me. She's like grandma's, a little baby boy, right, baby boy right. And then she would just instill all these affirmations in me of what I can do and what I can be. And you know, because you know, when you feel abandoned, you know these things, you know, give you a little, um, insecurities. So she always made me feel safe and secure and loved. You know I'm saying so.
Speaker 1:I think that, um, you know that was always a major part of it. So when I started going through my journey and things got hard, I had that foundation that I believed that I was, that I, I was here to do something more than my circumstances that particular time. You know so. So I think that definitely it helps you when you feel like you're on this earth for a reason to persevere through adversity yeah you know, you know what I mean yeah it's much easier.
Speaker 1:You did to push through. It's hard regardless yeah no matter what, it is right, but if you, if you feel like you have purpose in your life, you know, you know, you know that that's, that's the motivating factor to keep moving forward right, wow so when I finally got my freedom and I got clemency from the president.
Speaker 1:That's why it's like we did it. Grandma right, I figured out life. It took me all of those years of, like you know, um passing all the different tests and and being tested, and I did believe as I started going through prison like why am I here? Why do I have 16 life sentences right out of 8 billion people in the world? I'm one of the people who has a virtual death sentence. What did I do?
Speaker 1:Right To deserve to never, ever, ever, ever, ever, never. No matter what you do life without parole, no matter how much good you do in prison or how much you change yourself, you can never redeem yourself. I thought about that.
Speaker 2:Right, like, and then so Would you say, there's a I'm sorry, no, no no. Would you say that you can identify with. There is a calling in your life, whenever we go through things in our life, they're never. God didn't set this whole thing up for us to be defeated. Everything that God created grows and growth means stretching beyond a point in your life, your boundaries and your comfort zone. And everything, absolutely so. Could you identify with this before you ended up in?
Speaker 1:prison? No, not at all. It took about five years for me being in this situation, because you got to think I've never been to prison before. It was my first offense in like the 16 life sentences for a non-violent crime.
Speaker 2:What happened?
Speaker 1:Listen, like I said, I was always considered a very smart young man. I think some of the stuff about your parents and being an only child, those things I think some of the stuff about like, obviously, with your parents and you know, being an only child, that you know, those things you know. I think I was a little more receptive to influence when I was younger because I was like I was seeking more like maybe some brotherhood or acceptance and things that in that nature.
Speaker 1:So I ended up being the first you know person to go to college in the family, right. So I don't know if you knew that and I, um, I went to school for engineering, right because computer engineering, because I was like that was coming into existence, like computers and stuff.
Speaker 1:And then I did have a love for math and science, so I went in, I tested into it, I was able to get in there and then and what ended up happening? All my friends went to hbcus in the south right I have everybody from norfolk to howard to morehouse and all these schools, and I was like the only one that was left and they all went away and everybody went away, but I couldn't really I didn't have the finances because you had to pay to go to school out of state.
Speaker 1:So, as I would go visit on the weekends, you know, and things of that nature I started getting enamored by the culture. I had never been around my people like that, so many black people, right. I went to old boys campus where I did this. So when I got out there, you know, my grandmother cried like a baby, like when she was like you're making that decision. You know I'm saying like after all, as far as we came, please don't do it yeah and I did it transferred and that was just how everything changed.
Speaker 1:I went out there, you know people started getting money. I'm from New York and you know dudes is getting money in front of me jumping, jumping out of Corvettes and BMs and different things and I'm trying to, you know, do it the right way. And then ultimately I mean I was an engineering student, like I realized I hand well, I could put one dollar over another. You know what I'm saying. I do and I and I and I was, you know I was a marketer. You know I'm saying at heart, and I was, I was a trendsetter. You know I'm saying I turned into a real heavy lifestyle guy and and and then you do things in life. You know you don't really have the intention. You say I just want to get sell some weed and I'll just get a couple dollars so I could pay for my school and I can live off campus or then I want to get ourselves some weed and I'll just get a couple dollars so I can pay for my school and I can live off campus.
Speaker 1:Or then I want to get a car. You know I'm saying that, then you want to do this and then you start to get it. I'm gonna stay in a little longer and I'm gonna do these things, and you know a lot of people do these these type of things and then it gets out of hand, right? And that's kind of what happened with me, right? I got you know it was something that I didn't intend to do as a career, it was just to supplement my income and it just got bigger than I expected it to get.
Speaker 1:And then at some point I got out the game. I went back home and I realized that there was other ways to make money besides selling drugs. Basically, I could go buy a low-sell, high buy a T-shirt for a dollar. And then I started doing that. I got into merchandising, I got into the music and I got out of here. I started managing artists and I started doing parties overseas in the West Indies and I was like finding my groove. I was like this is what I was supposed to do. I almost fucked up, I almost messed up, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:I almost went that way all the way. Two years later I catch an indictment for the stuff that I did before, after I done left the game. You know what I'm saying and then, so I had the answer to that. I had the answer to that and that's how everything just started steamrolling right, you know, in that direction. So that's basically that story.
Speaker 2:Growing up, my cousins were some of in Alabama. And they were geniuses in ways, and I've always thought and known that there's no difference in whether you worked for Microsoft and became Bill Gates with your genius or if you were a big drug lord.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because you got to strategize, you could be a strategist. Well, you're still a businessman. You're a CEO. You know what I'm saying? Yes, you're a CEO.
Speaker 2:It's just what you use your power for, or your influences that determine your outcome.
Speaker 1:But there is no difference in you and Bill Gates.
Speaker 1:No, no, no, no, 100%. And a lot of times by having a broken family and not having your father around and these type of things. You just don't have that little and I didn't have the big brother. It's just that little thing. I was close but it was just that little thing that had you had, like other friends of mine who had brothers, they was like yo get over here, man, I'm playing. You know pop's going slap the city. You know what I'm saying. Get in the house. Oh yo, listen, they could see it coming. There was nobody there to see it coming. You know what I mean To see it coming to be able to be like my grandmother could, but she just couldn't get outside and drag me in the house.
Speaker 2:That's right, that was the difference.
Speaker 1:And being the only child you're almost left to your own way to figure out the world, because I was the only child, for the first 13 years of my life too.
Speaker 2:Yes, exactly, and for those first 13 years of my life, you have to figure out, yeah, your own system. Right, you know? And the streets teach you some things, your parents teach you some things and your friends teach you some things, but ultimately, you're left to the mercy of your environment in ways right and the decisions, right.
Speaker 1:It's sometimes, man, it's just, I'm not gonna say it's bad luck, but it's just like a, a decision or two away when you just when you're right there and you go right instead of going left, and it just changes everything. But. But that gets us back to the journey, right that that that, although this happens and I did have to end up getting 16 life sentences and I did have to do 17 years in prison what came out of that? Right, right. And when I came to the realization of, like, why I'm here, how I can add value to people's lives, even in that environment, right, I, that was kind of like the cold track crack of me just seeing my purpose.
Speaker 1:I knew that I was put there Right To learn, to grow, to mature and to be tested for all of the responsibility that I would have upon my freedom. And I said I knew I'm getting out because I felt like I had more to do. And so I think the attitude that anybody looks at something your situation is really what helped me persevere through 17 years in prison, my attitude towards why I was there, right, and so I maximized. I actually think I milked more out of prison than it milked out of me Like. I read thousands of books, I taught programs, I created programs, I learned, I tapped into myself, I learned things about myself I would have never learned. It's impossible because of all of the creature comforts.
Speaker 1:You know what I'm saying All of the different staccucciamonts you know what I'm saying that's out here, right, you don't have to go in that deep.
Speaker 1:You're only going to go that deep if you're forced to, right, and you may be running to a brick wall, right? So, due to the fact that I spent 17 years going within right, unraveling all of the different stuff, all the trauma, all the different things, you know, the bad decisions, forgiving myself and you know, and then coming out, you know, sometimes people go in and they never come out Right. They never come out because they lose that battle Right, right. And so I was blessed to have been able to sit still for long enough to see myself and get clarity right, because I believe, like, once you see yourself clear, that's only then can you see the world clear, right amen that's.
Speaker 1:That's the only time people think they're running stuff. You're not running, that's right. You can't even see yourself clear. You can't even see all these blind spots that you're missing. You know, you see. You see all these blind spots that you're missing. You see what I'm saying, but you think you just got all the sense. You know what.
Speaker 2:I'm saying that's actually something that I live by and I've said on this show Many a times. My own personal mantra is To thine own self be true and to thine own self be true, because if you aren't true and truthful to yourself, if you aren't true and truthful to yourself, if you don't know who you are, the world will teach you no hundred percent. And if you do know who you are, that's the foundation you need to build not only a credible life, but a wonderful life for yourself. But you must know who you are. This brings me to you right and purpose, right. Do you think that this is what your life needed for you to be the man that you are today? Did you 100? Yeah, okay, yeah, no 100.
Speaker 1:I think that I was chosen. This path was chosen for me right, because out of I was just the person that probably could get 16 life sentences and just like get out of it like that's just the bottom line, like because of how I view things.
Speaker 1:You know life, I'm a very forgiving person and you have to be forgiving because when you're going through something like that, you start to like place blame on other people, on decisions. Right, you make decisions that you're responsible for, friends you choose, or whatever relationships you get in, and when people fall short, a lot of times we, we get hurt by that. Right, we're hurt by that. Relationships you get in, and when people fall short, a lot of times we, we get hurt by that. Right, we're hurt by that and you get so hurt. Sometimes you don't recover, you know, from the, from the hurt, and then you, then you, then you soak in it and then you look up one day you're going through the circumstances and and, and you and you, you, you can't get out the bed in the in the morning. You know I'm saying is it?
Speaker 1:you get defeated right so for me, you know, I had forgiven myself, obviously, for the decisions I made. I never held a grudge on people, you know, for whatever somebody might have told on you, something just happened. That happened. You know, like you know a lot of people, if I didn't snitch on me, I'd never be in prison. I used to be like yo, you messed with them, you're responsible. Or the baby mama did this and the baby mom oh, you chose the baby mama, that's right, y'all. You had a baby with a boom, this, that and the other. If you would have really knew who you was dealing with, you would have known that this type of person it is, that it was only for the money. You know what I'm saying. So now, when she ran off, when you couldn't do nothing and you no longer could supply whatever that you were supplying, you no longer are a factor. That's just a rude awakening that you need to have. You see what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:You need to get the reality of the situation so that you can make better decisions later.
Speaker 2:So you can see people clear.
Speaker 1:You know what I'm saying. So next time you can be like yo. You know what. We just hit girls together. I made them my brother, but brothers no. We just used to hit girls together. I made him my brother, but brothers no, we just hit girls together. He got a new friend now and they're hitting girls together. You're no longer there. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:So your entire aura is belief in choice and we have consequences to our choices 100%, and it sounds like you, through your own awareness, have understood why you made the choices that you made. But most importantly and this is the thing that most people need to understand is you must forgive yourself. Yeah, 100%. Obviously, you should forgive other people, and I think that's the thing we talk about so much, and particularly as black men. We talk about forgiveness of others, but so many of us are not forgiving of ourselves.
Speaker 1:You're beating yourself up yeah you see what I'm saying now and for me, I looked at it as if I, if I, if I remain bitter through the process and I know I'm gonna get out in my mind, right, because I have something to do I'm just gonna go through the process, everything's a process, and but if I beat myself up the entire 17 years, what cory jacobs are you gonna get? You know what I'm saying, like, what cory jacobs you're gonna get? How can I even come out and win with that type of aura and energy that I'm projecting, that I held on to for all that time? Right, you're gonna be like, oh, he was in prison.
Speaker 2:But, cory, you had 17 life sentences, brother, 16 life sentences. Apologies, no 16. 16 life sentences.
Speaker 1:Apologies no because we're going to go to 16, so we got to make sure we know the 16 is the play, the 16 is the play.
Speaker 2:But how was it possible for you to even imagine that you would get out? I said you're a mental ninja. You are, and I would say, genius level. It's pretty easy for me to dissect and unpack black men, right, right right I've studied us we all study.
Speaker 2:You know who exactly who we are, who we may be, who we want to be. You really exemplify mental genius, because you knew that you were going to get out of prison with the odds 16 of life's most damning odds against you. How, in the heck, yeah, did you think you would?
Speaker 1:get out. I remember one time you had a guy you know and he was like you know, he knew I was on my first defense and he knew this. He said yo, cory, look, I had 30, some robberies, this, that and the other I still have a date. You see what I'm saying. He was like this unfathomable that you got there. He was like you don't even have any light at the end of the tunnel, right, and so I thought about that. I was like yo, there's no. I said forget, I don't got no light at the end of the tunnel. There's not even a tunnel to look down for hope, there's not even a tunnel. So I say, even in the principle book I talk about it. You know, when you don't have any light at the end of the tunnel, when you don't have a tunnel to crawl through, you know what do you do. You know what I'm saying. And you build a tunnel. You have to build a tunnel right when there is no tunnel to look down right.
Speaker 1:And so how do I build a tunnel, how do I build myself up? How do I become an incarcerated asset, how do I be so powerful and get so much value within myself so that I just transcend the prison walls? You see what I'm saying. You got to get that deep with it and you have to believe that. That belief has to be strong. And I say yes, belief, but for me it's beyond belief. Some people have faith and they believe, but when it gets hard, they fold.
Speaker 1:They fold Because you have 17 years, maybe after 8 years 9 years, 10 years, 11, 12, 13, 14, like you know, after like 10 and 11, oh, you know, you like, oh, I'm dealing with this. But 13, 14, 15, now we get into. Do you have belief For real?
Speaker 1:See what I'm saying and that's what Is being put on top of you. So when you make it over that hump right of being able to persevere, when it feels like all is potentially lost and you make it over, that's when you make it over the hump, you make it over the hump and that's where the victory comes in right.
Speaker 1:That's where the freedom of the mind comes in. You free your mind. So now you're not feeling incarcerated because all in your mind, your mind, is free, so you're able to do more powerful things. You know I'm saying so. So once I freed my mind, I felt stronger, I felt the purpose and I said, if I just stay strong and I never give up, right, and I stay true to myself, right, true to yourself, I don't change. I'll be the same young little Corey, that grandma's little baby boy, all the way to the end.
Speaker 1:I don't allow the prison to turn me into a backstabber or go to the other side, because it's easy to go to the other side If you got thousands of people around you and they're all feeling like they lost hope. If you got thousands of people around you and they're all feeling like they lost hope, how do you keep your energy intact Right In order to make it through, and that's very hard.
Speaker 2:What did you do specifically to sharpen your faith?
Speaker 1:sharpen your belief and that led you to your knowings. I think you know, like. You know how they say like, don't expect to get something from the work you didn't do. Like you know the whole thing. You know what they're saying, right, and it's like I know I knew my heart, right. I was like Corey, I had to think about this mathematically, right. I was like Corey, do you have the mental capacity to think your way through the situation? Right, do you have what it takes? Right, you know? Number two when I get out, am I going to get out? Right and do what I'm supposed to do? Am I a fraud? You know, I'm saying like, because if you're a fraud, god's gonna see you. Right, the universe, like, you can't lie. You still saying to the universe right, I knew. I said when I get out, I knew who I was, I knew I wasn't gonna be hypocrite, I knew that I was gonna come out and do some amazing things and take what I've learned, the wisdom from the journey and pour it into others. This is what I love to do, yeah, so I was just being set up. I was.
Speaker 1:I was a type of kid. I would was the type of kid. I would come outside and if my friends, I would have clothes in my jacket and I'll be divvying them out to other kids because they might not have clothes as good as me. I was the guy that if I'm getting money, I'm breaking the money up and giving everybody a little bit of money, right, you know what? So I knew I had the vision and I knew that what I was gaining in there you only can get to the solutions of being in the. In the problem there's solutions that need to be had. So how is the person going to come with a solution to some of these things? We're concerned with freedom and criminal justice and in different things the world might need Right, having not been in the belly of the beast suffering. You see what I'm saying. I do Like, yeah, I accepted it.
Speaker 2:It seems Like I think it's fair to say that you were a good person going in based off of the way you lived your life, with your friends and other people, but there's a lot of good people in prison and there's a lot of good people who don't have their day, or their just do you, and I want to keep going back to this because I really want to unpack this. You knew you were getting out 16 life sentences. Where does that come from, man?
Speaker 1:it, just it, just it, just it just comes from whatever is pouring in me. It's, it's hard to explain, annoying, you know it's hard to explain, you just know yeah right and Right.
Speaker 1:And let's say you have an idea and you'd be like you're so passionate about this and other people around you. It's not a win. They can't see it, but I know it's a win, right. So it's like you know. When you know, you can't listen to the naysayers. I can't listen to people saying like it's going to be harder when they say I was going after my clemency. They're like yo, corey, that's going to be almost impossible. There's 35,000 petitions in front of you, right? You have 16 life sentences. People that didn't even do as much as you did still aren't getting out. But I don't care. You see what I'm saying, like. You see what I'm saying? That's not me.
Speaker 1:I just knew that if there is a God, god's going to let me out, because I'm going to come out here and I'm going to go world out here. I'm going to bring it out. I'm going to do some stuff that's so amazing to show the magnitude of what could be possible. We had starting organizations, 60 lifers out of prison, all these different things I envisioned. I'm going to get out and I'm going to go back in and I'm going to get more of us out, Right? So we started the Buried Alive Foundation. Now we're at 60 lifers that are no longer in prison because of that vision. That obviously me, my attorney, who got me out, you know what I'm saying and another, you know one of her clients that were out here doing the work. And so you know, I don't know if there's any right answer to that. I don't know if that could be explained.
Speaker 2:I wonder if it, or was it ever in your prayers? Yes, was it a pact that you probably made with God to yourself? I said it like this I remember saying this one time I closed my eyes.
Speaker 1:I said, please God, if you do this for me.
Speaker 1:and there's millions of people who are doing this, but somewhere, you know, I'm going to be your best soldier. You know I'm gonna. I'm going to go out here and do xyz. I remember saying that to myself. Put it this way, I really, really, really, really, really knew that when I get out what I was going to do, I said, if I don't get out, that's like a disservice to society. I just felt like that. I felt like, if we want to make progress, right, if, if, if we want to create a wave of change, why not let the people out who sincerely want to be a part of the change?
Speaker 2:you know, you know what I mean and this is and you know, and it's gonna manifest.
Speaker 1:Because it's manifesting now, you understand, I'm saying like. So I feel like the timing of everything in the culture. I feel like we're just moving to that point, to where you need individuals like myself, who are passionate about having impact, who also have the skill set. I knew I had the skill set. So where we kind of started is when I was in prison. I created programs while I was in prison and because I did go to college, I understood that and I hustled and I was in the streets so I had the entrepreneurial best of both worlds.
Speaker 1:And so the inmates was complaining. The other cast was complaining that they wasn't coming in and teaching us. They wasn't teaching us the things that we needed to know. Outdated programs, you know? Um, the workbooks wasn't what it is, and I'm just not a complainer, I'm a more solution based. So why are we gonna complain that they're not gonna do it for us? So why don't we create our own program?
Speaker 1:So I put together a program with 25 classes around self-development and I built out that program and I started getting inmates to teach the program and then from there it just grew right and at that point I started really leaning into my purpose. Right, I started noticing that I was handling this better than a lot of people. The people was coming to me, I was putting together classes and I was cracking the code to what individuals needed to learn. So not like if you was in a college, but to get out of prison and be productive members of society. Right To get out of prison. And when we're already behind the eight ball, how do you win? When people went to college and can't get a job, you can win by adding value. It doesn't matter if I'm in a prison or not. If I could come here and do the job let's say my man, he's on the camera you could have went to Harvard. But if he's shooting better content, if he's more hungrier, if he's showing up on time and early, if he's staying up later, if he's not complaining, if he's being accountable guy that I'm going to put on the team. So I knew that you know saying and I felt like if people didn't have to worry about that background, as hard as it could be but if you just add value to yourself read books, learn, build yourself you could come out here and be productive members.
Speaker 1:That started to grow. I started to feeling the. I started to fill in the, the energy and the movement of what was possible and I started seeing that transcend out of prison and I seen the need. So I felt like, as I looked at thousands of inmates in prison, tens of thousands that I was coming in contact with, I was like how many people are as sincere as me and going as relentless as I'm going? It wasn't a lot of them, even like the cast that was like super in the world and they was just held this high.
Speaker 1:When the pressure's on you you know what I'm saying and when you lose all of the things that made you what you are the jewels, the chain, the role leader, all these things that you material things that you attach to yourself, that separated from yourself, when you no longer had those things and it was just you and yourself, how built are you? Yeah, who are you? Who are you right? And it wasn't. I started noticing. I said, man, there's not a lot of people that are handling this thing. You see what I'm saying they're getting sucked in you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Now, there was some people. You know I'm saying that was, but not everybody had life. Listen, life is a whole other monster. You got people that could do 20 years come out here. You know why? Because they're in there. They could tell their kids oh, I'm going to see you, I'm going to see you.
Speaker 2:There's hope, there's a date. I have a date.
Speaker 1:But to have a death sentence, virtually not not knowing if you're going to get out or not, that is something that is a whole other level of time that you got to do. So I just felt like as I grew, as I read, as I learned myself, as I became more aware, I felt so powerful that I felt like I'm getting out of here and I felt more like this they can't hold me like this.
Speaker 2:They can't hold me. You have again the mental fortitude of like a samurai, or I put you on the same level as what it takes for bills bill gates to run a company, because you have to intake certain things but you can't take everything in. You have to stand by. Your knowings what I'm really here.
Speaker 1:You're not going to have all the answers and when you're sitting there trying, I'll tell people all the time you're trying to explain it or you need to know everything. That's not, you're not going to know everything. I'm not going to know exactly how I'm going to get out. But you know what? I went in this direction, kept my moral compass this way. I held firm with it. I attracted an attorney who took my case. I kept fighting for myself.
Speaker 1:And I say that in the book too. Right, life is going to slap you in the face. Right, you're going to be slapped in the face by life. Right, and in prison there's this thing. Right, they're preying on people. Right, because obviously it's like the jungle right out here. If you weak, you know saying but people would say, I'll fight with you, but I was, I can't fight for you. You see what I'm saying?
Speaker 1:yeah, and that's the metaphor for the larger life, right, like like. Once you fight for yourself, the universe, god, or however you want to put it right in general is going to bring you the pieces that you need right, and they brought me, in the form of an attorney that resigned from her job and took my case. In my 15th year of prison right and 10 months after her taking my case, I was getting the confirmation that I got my freedom back.
Speaker 2:What I want to really identify with you is the fact that it's not happenstance and it's not just a prayer. There are tools and steps in this lifetime that God has given us for us to overcome adversity and to win winnergy. You prayed and historically we know that you're supposed to come before the Lord with honesty. You prayed an honest prayer. Yeah, you're a humble man who believed in yourself and what you could do. That's right and that is and why I was here.
Speaker 2:And why you were here, why I'm here and your purpose, yes, which is a very big thing for a lot of us black men to understand that your purpose. Nothing must stop you from your purpose, that's right. But not just physical things that we all think it's having the mental fortitude, yes, to fight through all of the circumstances that exist in our lives and to fully believe in who you are, where you're going and what your purpose here is for. That's right. And you have done an excellent job, brother, at being a mental ninja, I would say.
Speaker 1:Right, right, right. They call me the cold cracker. Oh, is that what they call you? Yeah, they call me the cold cracker.
Speaker 2:Great because that's what I wanted you to do is crack the code so we can let these brothers know how to get beyond ourselves. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And it leads on to when you, when you talk about the knowing and the purpose and you start looking at you know what I'm doing now it translates. You show, you can show, like how I transitioned from that and to get to xyz and your imagination. Right, you got, you have the. Your imagination is so you can, you can travel, you can do so much, you can see so much. When I looked out the prison window in those bars, I remember sometimes, sometimes I would look out there and I'm seeing, instead of the yard, I'm seeing freedom.
Speaker 1:What we place in our imagination is very, very important. I used to have painters commissioning them to paint paintings of things I wanted. You know what? I'm saying Me sitting on a stool in a condo with the New York City behind it. You know it's you training your mind and really what you're thinking about If you're doubting and you have the fear right, because you've got to get scientific with this too, because I've read thousands of books.
Speaker 1:So, I'm trying to read all kinds of cultures, all kinds of cultures, all type of metaphysics Like how does the thoughts work? Does a thought have weight? Does it have gravity? Well, if, it has gravity, that means it has a pull. So if a lot of thoughts start thinking like this, that means that you have to really start seeing how things work in the universe, right?
Speaker 1:And how can you tap in and create your own reality? You know what I'm saying, so I believe that we had the power to create that reality, and that made me feel more empowered than feeling like I did.
Speaker 2:You don't believe that. You know that Right, exactly. And that is the sauce 100% your knowings, because belief is still doubt in the belly of belief. That's right, I can say I believe I'm a when you going, I believe.
Speaker 1:I'm a. Where are you?
Speaker 2:going. I believe I'm going over here to 7-Eleven. I believe I'll be back. There's doubt I'm going to 7-Eleven, I'll be right back. That's right. That's a knowing no, a hundred percent. So, and that's a part of the sauce and the fabric of who you are, which is such a special thing, brother, to meet men like you.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And you, so much of you reminds me in so many ways of Nelson Mandela, because one of his famous sayings is that he was in prison for a lifetime or whatever it was, but he never spent a day in jail. He never spent the day incarcerated because of the exact same things. Was Nelson one of your? Yeah, did you read his book?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I talk about that in the principal book. Right, I have.
Speaker 1:I talked about it in an area where I used to read all of these different books like obviously the long walk to freedom, um, the long walk it was about, you know, individuals who was in a concentration camp and they went through, you know, the um frozen tundra, through the himalayas, through the mojave desert, and to freedom. You know I'm saying so when I read books like that. You know the Man's Search for Meaning, you know, and things of that nature, where you find meaning through suffering and what we're able to take.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:These books help me. I read books. I read stuff. Like you know, count Amante Crisco with the guy. He's in prison for 20-something years.
Speaker 2:That's not an easy book and they dug their way out of there.
Speaker 1:You see what I'm saying, and they threw him over, figured it out and then got back to society in his most magnificent state of glory. You know what I'm saying. So when I would read these books of overcoming, it gave me hope, like I'm, like they was going through worse stuff than me. This is nothing Right. So it's like what you're choosing to read when you go to bed at night, what you're reading, what's on your mind, because I need to maximize every minute of the day.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:So if I go to bed and I read a book, I'm still cold cracking. I'm not going to go to bed listening to something that's going to have me thinking about this. No, because when I'm sleeping, colds need to be getting cracked codes need to be getting cracked.
Speaker 2:You see what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:Those eight hours. I wake up with ideas at four in the morning, I'm writing them down. I'm getting closer to freedom. I'm not wasting a millisecond of my day, even behind the walls of a prison. Wow, you see what I'm saying. You gotta want it.
Speaker 2:You gotta want it and you have to have blinders on. That's right.
Speaker 1:You can't listen to nobody, because, listen, people are doubting. They're saying what can't be done. They're looking at what they can't do. They're going to put their fears on you.
Speaker 2:So this is happening. You see what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:This is going to be happening constantly. Yes, so let's just say Get away from me. You see, and that was one of the reasons why I have Winnergy. Winnergy is, you know, obviously it comes from within, right, right, but it's all it is is the mindset that I had when I was in prison. Right, it was my force field that I kept around me to ward off doubters. Yeah, because I got the Winnergy. Yeah, me to ward off doubters. Yeah, because I got the winter g. Yeah, you see what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:So if I'm, if I'm going through the prison, I'm going to library. Y'all want to go over here and watch basketball. Not that I didn't watch basketball, I gambled, I, you know, I did stuff, you know, in it periodically, right, but I stayed in that library every day. You understand what I'm saying. So if you come to kick it with me, they're gonna think about it. You know why? Because when they come, they're gonna know they can't be lying and freestyling. Right, they got to be held accountable. We got to be on something. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:So if you want to gossip, you got your buddies that you can go gossip, that's right. I'm not with that, that's right. So I've, I created a force field around me, so where I attracted more people that was on more trying to do something, because they was like oh where you going library, what you doing? I'm like I'm trying to get back to the town, get to this freedom you coming. Sometimes people will go left, they'll go right and I'm walking, they'll be like yo see, let me holler at you. You know I'm like yo holler at me at the library. Next thing you know it's 15, then it's 20. We all like computers.
Speaker 1:We're making a program. Yo listen, you was a Navy SEAL. We're going to put the program together for the workout program. You went and stole money on Wall Street. You're going to do the Wall Street program.
Speaker 2:You see what I'm saying, you're going to be a facilitator.
Speaker 1:My man likes to do yoga. Yeah, these cats need a little yoga in the program. You understand what I'm saying. So we stay in learning, stay in growing, stay in productive. Yeah, and that's how you keep going. Some people, like I said, they lose hope, they try to escape. I wasn't doing drugs, I wasn't trying to drink, even though I smoked a little weed every once in a while. I probably smoked five times. You know what I'm saying. I'm not like every once in a blue, because this older white guy was like yo, corey, you know, you've been in 10 years, you hadn't had a drink. He was like it's okay, you can take the edge off.
Speaker 2:You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 1:He was like wait, oh, they make prison wine Of course they was making wine before it was in the stores. How they fermented it? They strained it and it was gas, you know what I'm saying. They make it in the mountains. Or you needed some fruit, you need some sugar and you need time.
Speaker 2:Like moonshine in a way. Yeah 100%.
Speaker 1:Listen, I'm going to tell you like this, in prison, you have to be some of the most creative individuals you'll ever meet. They can make a knife out of newspaper and stab you. You understand what I'm saying. They're making. They're they're playing chess and I'm in this room. I'm playing chess with somebody who's in another room through the wall. You see what I'm saying. So now this makes your mind all like. You start to see. I can see the chess pieces, where you're positioned and where I'm positioned. I can't see your board and I remember where your pieces is at, to the point where, if you try to cheat, I'm like no, three moves ago. You did that, remember, when I took your bishop, you see what I'm saying, and then I did that nah, you see what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:This is how deep it's getting right. So you, you be very resourceful. You know you get very resourceful because you're forced to. Either you are or you aren't, and that's going to make a difference.
Speaker 2:Do you think it's? Either you are or you aren't Of?
Speaker 1:course it's. Either you're growing or you're dying.
Speaker 2:Either you're moving or you're not, every second of our lives. Yeah, you're, either.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, are you watering the plant? Are you planting seeds in different places or giving yourself possibilities?
Speaker 2:So it's not a destination, it is the journey.
Speaker 1:I always say, when I was in there right, If you're not creating, you're not living right.
Speaker 1:I stayed creating, I stayed dreaming, I stayed putting stuff together. I didn't stop my ideas and things I wanted to do. They may not have manifested in there, but I got ideas now I'm implementing from 14 years ago that are hot as fire today. I tell somebody about the idea they think it's the craziest idea ever and I show them where I did it in 2008, when I first did it and I built it out.
Speaker 1:We talking about this much built out website designs and all these different things from then and because it's a solution, and maybe I was a little bit early, you see, you see what I'm saying, but I didn't stop creating so that I can hit the town and I can hit it running, because I prepared myself, I did my entire bid, I would say, with the notion that I have three years left to get out. Hmm, I was okay, like I'm three years away, because if you, if you feel like you're three years away, what are you doing? You're doing this. I'm getting myself together, I'm doing. You know, you see, there's not a time in the day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for me the day is rolling by so fast that the day is over with, because I'm doing so much to prepare for freedom.
Speaker 2:You have the expectancy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And the expectancy match your reality.
Speaker 1:That's right, anyway.
Speaker 2:I don't know how anybody doubts you in anything you say Right, right, right, because of what you just said.
Speaker 1:They can just doubt the possibilities, like it's like when you remove that doubt as hard as it is sometimes because it's in there it's like is it going to happen, but you're making yourself less powerful.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:There's this, let's say, there's this, things coming in. It's like spokes, right, when you have doubt, you might as well remove four or five spokes and you give yourself less chance, but when you take the doubt away, all of this is possible. Yeah, what I'm saying, yes, it's all possible. It's all possible, right, you know what I'm saying, and so it's not something you could just easily explain to people, right like. So I like tried to.
Speaker 2:You're doing a great job at explaining it, though let me just tell you I tried to.
Speaker 1:Um, just to show you know, like me I learned. Like you can't get anybody it's hard to get people to do I tried, like when I was in there, if he was my celly you couldn't smoke. I used to be trying to get everybody to stop smoking cigarettes, like that was my thing, right, like. So I had a guy. He was like, if you're my celly and you smoke, I was like, oh you, you have to stop smoking because everybody wants to be my celly, because I have all the books they can come get some jewels they like.
Speaker 1:I'm trying to be a celly so. I can like you know, and I was like well, you have to stop smoking. You know what I'm saying. So one time I had a celly you look like he was doing good and he was in the room and my man said yo, he's aces smoking, he's smoking in the room let him live, don't know, and then I told him I was like yo right, he was like yeah, I couldn't stop me, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:So I realized at that moment you can't really. So it's like working out, I'm not the type of person I'm not going to say, oh, let's go to the gym. No, I'm going to be in the gym. You might walk by.
Speaker 2:I'm going to be working by example yeah, you know, you know what I'm saying. I can fight with you, but I can't fight for you. I can't fight for you. Yeah, you see what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:Yo, I'm like no, nephew, you're like yo go go grab me out to you know, grab me in the morning when you go to work out. I wish I would go grab me a 21 year old out some bed.
Speaker 2:You're supposed to be coming to get me. You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 1:like no right, I can fight with you, but I can't fight for you.
Speaker 2:Amen you know, you know, you know what I mean. So, yeah, yeah. So let me ask you a question how did you, how did the barack hussein obama know you? How did you become one of the few that he pardoned within his presidency?
Speaker 1:what's the story behind it? Yeah, I mean, look, I remember um, I was in my room and I was um I guess I was on facebook or something you know.
Speaker 1:You put your little profile up there. Hopefully a couple of people I was never on this but like, as it got more popular, you know, I was always like a guy was very innovative, you know well. Anyway, um, a friend of mine they showed, eric holder was at a wedding of somebody that I knew. Let's just give this an example eric holder was the attorney general right of the united states, united States. I was like they was like dude, do you know? Someone still knows him. He's the Attorney General. And I was like where is Eric Holder from? You know what I'm saying? Right, and he was from the Bronx, you know whatever it is. And he's black. I'm like hold on. And I read an article in a newspaper. But they sent me the paper of the photo of him and I had this. I had this folder and I put it in a folder. It was like my vision folder, stuff that I wanted right, you know and I had to think of britney.
Speaker 1:She was in the front cover of the washington post. I put the article in my folder and she ended up being my lawyer. I'm just giving it to you what it is. Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:Right, right, right. You see what I'm saying, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So now I see an article in a newspaper, in a Philadelphia paper, where he went out there and he was speaking to some young men. He was like, listen, although I'm in a position that I'm in, these guys was getting a second chance. He said y'all have a better chance at impacting these young people out here than even I do, because you've been down the road, they've been down Right. And I was like, oh, he's talking to me. If you let me, you know what I'm saying. Like I was like, yes, I took that, I put it in my folder. Make a long story short. Once Brittany took my case and she ended up taking my case. Um, you know, at the end of the day, eric holder and I wrote him, I wrote him and I and I told him that I'm the guy you're talking about. Wow, you know, I'm saying I'm, I'm, I'm the guy that you're saying can have an impact. You know if, given a second chance and speak to these people and show them there's a better way?
Speaker 1:He read the letter Boom, he ends up doing an op-ed in the New York Times about my case, specifically about me. What you can just Google it Eric Holder, Corey Jacobs, New York Times article. That's incredible. He had never done this. The attorney General Wow, that my sentence was unfair sentences. That's what the audit school was about. They started it with a case like Corey Jacobs and ended it more Corey Jacobses out there.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:That went through the entire criminal justice Department of Justice they had to it was like a. You know why? Because in order to get the clemency, there's a few things that have to happen. For one, it has to go to the DOJ Before it gets to Obama or the pardon attorney. They don't even see it because they're protecting them Right From frivolous cases, right If they seen everybody that shot.
Speaker 1:They shot at clemency. They wouldn't have enough time in the day. That's right. There's a process, right so your judge who wrote a support letter for me and that's another story. Um, he wrote that Right, so now it's. He wrote that right, so now you're a needle in a haystack. There's 35,000 petitions, but if Eric Holder wrote an article about my sentence being an affair, I almost could be the poster boy. You see what I'm?
Speaker 1:saying so now from there, my attorney. She went and got the congressman after she resigned from her job as a corporate attorney and said I'm going to get you out if it's the last thing I do, wow, yeah yeah, yeah, wow At 32 years old.
Speaker 1:She came sat across from me in prison and said, Corey, you're going to impact the world and I'm going to resign from my job and show you. I'm going to sacrifice my career to get you out and I'm going to get you out. And then when I left her, she was like look, go back into prison. She said I want you to say I'm free. And I was like I'm free. She said now go back in there, I don't even want you to worry about it. She went all over the country with hashtag free Corey Jacobs shirts. We got the congressman, scott Of a congressman In Virginia when I called my case. He signed a support letter. That was big. The congressman this is real congressman, not like a state rep. Yeah, because that means they have to like when they put a letter.
Speaker 1:That means they have to listen to it, like I can ask what happened Right, right to it. Like I can ask what happened right, right. But if a regular person, a regular state rep, is something, it's not like we don't have to know. This is, I had to see, learning yeah politics, understanding procedures to crack the code. You got to know where the landmines are. You have to know the system you see, you see, you see, I'm saying you have to know the system. So one we got every cold yeah yeah, yeah, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:Then we got that, then a lawyer I had I had got she was a part of an attorney For 16 years During the Bush and the Clinton administration. I was like, if I was getting a part, who would I get? I would get a part attorney that left the administration. Who's doing private work now? For you know, they know the code. It wasn't it. It wasn't it. So make a long story short. I got all of these things and then my attorney after I started getting momentum right, um went and there was 500 african-american mayors in the united States. They wrote a letter to Obama and President Obama saying that there was ten people that they feel that could impact society if you let them free. And damn, if I wasn't on that mother to 500 mayors. Wow, so you got eric holder, 500 mayors, my judge saying he wouldn't have gave me the time given if I, if I, if I was sentenced today, the congressmen in in virginia and all of those things started happening for me and I just started.
Speaker 1:I started feeling more like everything that I did up to that point it was, it was, it was leading me towards, you know, um, to freedom. It was just you know what I'm saying. And then, ultimately, you know I did, I got the call. You know what I'm saying, I got the call. You know that, um, you know, right before Christmas, in um 2016, that, um, you know, I talked to Brittany and I'm like hello, you know, it's a long, it's a whole thing. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:But tell us. I'm telling you, man. No, yeah, well look, you know I was in a cell, right.
Speaker 1:You know, I was in a cell and it was getting close. We did an event called Hope for the Holidays, right, where we brought out you know, she resigned from my job to take my case, but then it turned into like a whole movement, right, and now we got these all these cases now she's fighting for and we're filing petitions, making it a thing. So we did. I hadn't got clemency yet and it's like almost Thanksgiving and now Obama is not even the president anymore, because Trump had won yeah, so now it's like I'm done if he doesn't do it yeah
Speaker 1:and what happened was we did a whole for the holidays but we brought petitions and boxes in front of the Justice Department and stacked them up and had everyone CNN, van Jones, everybody was out there went to the White House and did all these things and um and we and we and we and we and we did that last push. So now I'm looking for the clemency. I'm like yo, my name isn't on it time after time, and so now I hear they're gonna do I hear that they're gonna do the last little list potentially right, and I was like it was supposed to be on a Friday and now it's Friday, it's on the 16th too and I'm like damn, I could get it on it because my number was 16. I had 16 life sentences. I was listening.
Speaker 1:That's the whole story behind that. But so I'm like, so I'm in the bed the whole weekend, I'm curled up, I can't even sleep. I'm like the rubber is gonna meet the room. I said if, if, monday. No, what happened was Friday. I seen Obama on TV and he was on the podium and he was kind of looking very unpresidential right there. He was leaning on there and he was just talking like he was like I'm not the president, like I told you, motherfuckers, to vote.
Speaker 2:You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 1:Like whatever right, and I'm on my way to Hawaii. I was like he's going to Hawaii, it's over. If I'm not on this, I'm done. So it's 7 in the morning, I'm laying in my bed, I have an outfit folded up on my thing, like the browns. It's folded up, and at 7 o'clock I hear my name being called in the loudspeaker Corey Jacobs, come to man. Corey Jacobs, come to the administration office. Right. And then I had this kid, this inmate. He came to my door, busted my door, because usually I'm up at 530, but now I can't even sleep. I haven't got it. I'm just now. I'm imagining like if I got to get, if I can't get it in Obama's presidency, when can.
Speaker 1:I get it. You know what I'm saying. After this crazy push with all the support and the universe and everything aligning up for me.
Speaker 1:And so I got so nervous at that point because nobody has gotten it in the prison that I know when they call you up there and you file, they'll call you and say you didn't get, get it. That's all I've ever seen. Like they call you up there to be like you get it. They be like I didn't get it. So when they call on my name, you know, when they call on my name, the guy comes in. He's like yo, yo c. They call me c, they call your name, nigga, that's it. And I'm like in the bed and I'm frozen. He. He said get up, nigga. I'm telling you that's it. So this was a guy. He wasn't my friend, but he was a guy. Whenever I see him he said man, you're going to get that. You're a good dude man. He was like you're going to get it.
Speaker 2:You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:He said you're going to get it out of everybody. You're going to putting my clothes on, I'm tucking my shirt, I'm have a little belt and I'm walking and I come out the room and I'm walking slow and then the whole. Usually it's so loud in the morning because people don't bet it on.
Speaker 2:You know, basketball, football, whatever, I think it was like football season or something, and everybody was just there, nobody was talking.
Speaker 1:This is unheard of. And so you had guys all up on the top leaning over the balcony, some guys just sitting there and everybody was looking as I was walking through the unit and um, and some dudes like yo, you know, yo, good luck bro. You know I'm saying boom, some dudes is indifferent, obviously. Who gives if I got I'm doing my time f him, you know right. And I went back there and I seen the um. You know I seen the um. You know it was two white ladies, you know counselors, and usually they're not there in the. You know I seen the. You know it was two white ladies, you know counselors, and usually they're not there in the morning. You know what I'm saying. They don't come in until like 830 or whatever right, so they're back there. They're acting all funny, you know they like you know you come here. I'm like what happened? I was like do I get it? Did I get it?
Speaker 1:And he was like they don't even know right. They was like you just got a call in two minutes. We had a call and you're going to get a call. So they put me in this room and it was like a rotary phone, you know, a phone where you hit the thing and it's going just making noise.
Speaker 2:It was like literally a rotary phone, literally.
Speaker 1:Walking into the wall and the room was just a dusty room and I'm just sitting there and it's not even lit, it's just. I'm in there waiting for the phone to ring for two minutes the longest two minutes of my entire life to this day. And and then the phone rang. I pick it up and I'm like hello and my lawyer. She's like hey, corey, and I was like hey Corey. I said you sounded jubilant to myself, you know. And she was like I said are we winning? She's like yes, we're winning. She said yes, we're winning. She said we're winning. And then she was like you know, she was like you know, you know, she was just telling me corey, I just want to let you know that obama, you know, you know, she was just telling me Corey, I just want to let you know that Obama, sasha, you know, you know, and the thing about it is, you know, I didn't even, I didn't even, I ain't cry. Then you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:I had never cried my whole entire sentence, and even my grandmother died. I dropped a little tear, but I knew she told me beforehand that she was. You know she didn't have it. She didn't have the fire, no more. She couldn't wait. You know what I'm saying. And ultimately, you know, she said you know, Obama signed my presidency and we did it. Wow, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:And then that was it man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, wow, brother you are one of the most incredible human beings I've met, and I do think that you are here for a reason, on this planet, in this room, and I am so proud of you as a black man walking this earth who's been through my own fair share of adversities. I'm so fucking proud of the person you are and I'm so thankful to Ariel for introducing me to you and to the world from my POV. Your story, your life, is a living example of what it means to have faith, to have courage and to have strength to overcome all the shit that we go through in this lifetime. Brother, for me, as I said earlier, you are the quintessential black man and you are exactly what it needs and what we need to overcome anything in our lifetimes, because things happen to all of us. But I also I pay homage to your grandmother because I believe in one of my notes I put before I even know your story was who prayed?
Speaker 1:for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there is an anointing over your life, there's a calling over your life, and I think you know that that's very clear.
Speaker 2:But a lot of us know it and we don't serve our purpose. So I have to give you every single ounce of my thanks and gratitude for serving your purpose. And I'm pretty sure it's not easy, you know, to walk the journey of who you are. I'm pretty sure it's just not easy just because you're out either. No, no, a hundred percent. The thing that that gave you the fuel and the power to do everything you've done is that you've been mentally free for a very long time 100 and that mental freedom gave you the intelligence that you needed to see things clearly. And seeing things clearly, you get to see that every one of our lives has a pattern. It's a pattern. We didn't invent this thing so that's what we get.
Speaker 1:That's what we started thinking we invented the light. Right like we start our egos and we start to like and that's where we don't see stuff clearly. That's right and that's where we get hit.
Speaker 2:That's where we get hit. This episode is going to allow a lot of black men, and men of color in general, to see the patterns that exist before them and, instead of allowing the patterns that have existed before us and the laws that existed before us to break you, you are a prime example of a man who used those laws and those patterns and the favor and will of God that every man has.
Speaker 2:You're not special in that way Every man has favor, but you have the gift of recognizing your gifts. That's right and that is your superpower. That's right, so my brother appreciate that yeah, man come on dude, you, you have inspired me so much and and I can sit here and talk to you.
Speaker 1:But seriously, I, I will come back and do another one.
Speaker 2:Listen when I'm hey man, we about to be friends. What you talking about? Come back, I'm talking to you tomorrow ain't no question nah, it's a lot I believe.
Speaker 1:Look, man, you know there's a lot that can be done with good brothers coming together.
Speaker 2:Amen, yes, sir, and.
Speaker 1:I believe what should happen our different experiences, you know is what is that? Cold crack, right, like, I have my journey, you have your journey. And when you bring in more people, you have a network of people. I have a network that I've met and different people, right, and when you bring all of that together and we start to sit it down, we start to strategize it and start to run it, putting our minds together. That's why we're here. You know what I'm saying. We can start putting our minds together from this day forward. There, you know, we start putting our minds together. Like, from this day forward, there's really no, no limit, you know ceiling to as far as we can go and rise this, literally globally. I mean because when you listen, when you for me, when you build in a global community of winners, that's the push and that's what's going to happen.
Speaker 2:Amen. So tell us how can the people be and get more involved With Winnergy. Tell us where to go, where you find the book. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Give us all the yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm about to put that In the air in a minute.
Speaker 1:I think you can go to like you know. You know Corey S Jacobs At Instagram. You can find me there. I'm on LinkedIn as well. You got Winnergycom. I'm that in probably the next week or so. Um, and I'm gonna have a lot of you know, because another thing I want to do right, you know, I'm not. We just don't want to be like, oh, winter g, we're waving it. No, we want to actually help empower people so that they can fulfill their fullest potential. Yes, you know what I'm saying. So not just like, okay, yeah, we have the winter gage Once we crack the code to the mental freedom and we show the process. Now, how can we, in business and in different things like that, how can we put our network and resources together? Whatever you need to win, if you embrace this push and you bring it value and you are, we're not, and you are, you know, we're not fighting for you, you're fighting for yourself, yeah, so this that's the point with you coming in fighting for yourself, even if you're dealing with a big somebody's huge.
Speaker 1:Get a black eye, just close your eyes and throw some swings. If you just do that, we're going to rock with you. Yeah Right, and do that, we're gonna rock with you yeah right and then, when they come, listen, look at them.
Speaker 1:All the many ways and tools and people and and connections that we could connect people with in order to be successful, right and and build businesses together and and just from the smallest thing somebody might need to some of the biggest connections that they would need to fulfill their dreams. That's right in our hands we got it yeah right.
Speaker 1:I got a good amount myself, yeah. So what happens when we get the bing bing bing right? You know connecting people, they're doing this, but they gotta have the right energy. I'm not gonna. I done made a lot of decisions. I done supported people. I was the type of guy who would you can just mess me over like five times, I still mess with you.
Speaker 2:I'm not that guy, no more you see, those I'm saying like I'm not supposed to be.
Speaker 1:I'm supposed to be smarter right you know I'm saying I don't, I don't, I don't do that and I'm very perceptive. I can see if it's earlier, if it's not a play. So if you come in faking a bullshit, I'm going to you're gonna be on your own very fast, yeah, because one thing I learned from prison to get out there alive, you have to know people if they're good for you or not when you come in contact with them.
Speaker 2:You got to be at a freedom immediately because you could die.
Speaker 1:You could die, yeah, by not knowing, you know, letting somebody in or embracing something that shouldn't be in your circle. So you have to be strong enough to like to not do it right. So, at the end of the day, I feel like that's another thing, Like you know, coming together and being intentional on building some things, because my story I feel like I'm winning. You know, I'm winning because I'm incredibly happy. I'm going to tell you that and I milk every second of the day. It takes a lot to get me up on square. I think by showing people that a person can go through something like this, come out the other side and be better and then win and thrive, not just survive. That's the story that needs to be told, Because now other people can say well, I have examples, Not just examples of people that didn't do it.
Speaker 1:You need more examples of people who won that's right, because they're using the examples of people who didn't win to keep other people still in prison. That's right, because they're gonna be like, oh look at these, all these people that didn't win. No, we need some wins on the board.
Speaker 2:That's right, and we need brothers like you who have won that's right, not just winning, but you won this game of life that's right and we need brothers like you who have won. That's right.
Speaker 1:Not just winning, but you won this game of life, that's right To give us the tools and the sauce, as we like to call it. So thank you for sharing your sauce with us.
Speaker 2:Brother, I'm happy to be blessed. Thank you for the hospitality today's episode, and I'd also like to ask you to spread the word about our community. We're small, we're mighty, but we're healing and growing as men, and thank you in advance for helping share that. So if you want to help us keep the conversation going or if you need to have a chat yourself, you can always reach out to us on our Facebook, our Instagram or our TikTok. Fellas, let's grow.
