The Dark Side of Growing Up in a Mafia Family

The low east side wasn't what it is today. And men getting heads but open baseball bats. They didn't comply with my father and my family's wishes. It was like, who could be more crazy? So he was bringing in Callie Butt. Oh, yeah, bro. He was one of the biggest dealers in the city. He was just a hustler today, died. I mean, dude, I would watch my father get high. Always wondering who's going to break down the doors. And my father's going to get killed. Is he going to die from doing drugs? Is he going to get pinched? Is someone going to hurt me? Yeah, but I started doing drugs at 12 years old, just to function at the house. I was just looking for an escape. I started to sell for my dad, sell pills, all that stuff. My dad was a great drug dealer. He made millions, but he died broke. [MUSIC PLAYING] Dude, you are the last New Yorker with the New York accent. Yeah. It ain't going, no, I've been out here 15 years. You still-- still got the accent? Yeah. I married a Jewish attorney from she had for jail and now we're getting to that. So she used to defend me in court. She was your defense lawyer. Oh, yeah, defense attorney. That can't be legal. [LAUGHTER] I'm pretty sure that-- Violates. She's licensed here with this. And whatever they want to do, let them do it. Because she didn't change her name for three years. So she's-- Yeah, because I was a desist then, bro. And then I had a fucking-- I never did no time. I always got out either through calling the attorney. I had cousins that were fucking detectives and sergeants pulling paperwork. I always got out of it somehow, some way. Never did no time. I've been in every fucking jail in New York, never prison. Right. You could have though. Oh, bro. God kept me-- whatever the fuck it is that I met, kept me here. I know for my son, his future generations, and I help people over the fucking world now, bro. Like that book, I don't even make a lot of money on it. I don't give two fucks. I wrote it for my kid. Just in case I died, he wouldn't know his dad. No one can have a fucking brainwasher on some bullshit. He knows his father, and then he's got all this shit, you know what I mean? So no one can manipulate. Because as you evolve and elevate in life, and you come from a certain point, crabs in a bucket theory, even around family and friends, you know what I mean? And it makes them confused, because it's like, here, this guy was all fucked up on drugs in and out of jail, and then he became a multi-millionaire. Yeah. He'd built companies and sold them and broke books, and had a heart transplant and came back and built his fucks. Before he's seven next month, I got a fucking six pack, built my body, wrote a book, do keynotes, so it puts fucking a mirror to a lot of people. You got to be around people that are doing the same shit. Right. 'Cause a lot of the cats you came up with in the street. They might act like, I don't trust nobody no more. You know what I mean? When you're doing good, you put a target on your back. Especially guys like us, because we're out in the public. There's always a target. I try not to go out in public. That's what I'm saying. Me neither. It's the only thing I like about it. I can carry my guns. Haha. Nah. It's for something. I might have to get something, too. Yeah. You just don't know, bro. But people never want to see you do good. It's only the ones that are above you that want to see you do good. Like anybody that you came up with, and you start elevating things, they're happy for you when you're just coming up, but when you start really going, that's when the hate starts, man. That's true in the streets, too. Always, bro. And we're going to screw things. Always, bro. Whatever you want. Everything. You know, you've got to keep a low profile. I'm out there. I wrote a book. I didn't care. I saw when I was in the hospital who showed up and who did it. And it was like the final straw of like, how I'm going to move in life. And I want to put this book out for my son. And then it went best selling, you know, a few countries. So it wanted to help them people all over. I put it in. I spoke Arizona State Prison. I had a fucking guy in there tell me three years. He goes, you know, "Frank, it was a fucking divine appointment that I'd be in prison and hear your testimony." And that book is in the Arizona State Prison for all the inmates for free for all of them. It's on PDF, like on the, you know, Kindle that I put in this. So that's why I went to a watershed that I went through, bro. I don't glorify the past, but it made me who the fuck I am. That's what I mean. Yeah. So you kind of got to be grateful for that. 100%. Bro. I've seen things that most haven't, you know, small percentage of people. I mean, you grew up in a time that most New Yorkers now don't even understand, bro. And you didn't have cameras or nothing, bro. We'll get into it. The stories I could tell you as a little kid of what shaped me versus what my son is like with the air and dripping springs and all, man. I mean, like, my next name was the coach for Austin FC, like you totally different, bro. I was too blocked from God. He's social club. Those were the guys I looked up to. Little Italy, bro. Manhattan, Lower Manhattan, New York City in the 80s and 90s. That's how you came up. Yeah, bro. I was born 1979. Okay. So you remember the 90, you remember when it was still New York? First of all, are we recording? Okay. I remember. I remember. So I grew up on Elizabeth Street. There was used to be what is pericy bakery. It's been in my family since 1903. It's on Mach Street. One block over, two blocks down from where I grew up on Elizabeth and Houston Street. Right down the street from my bakery was the first ever deaf jam studios. I lived in the apartment above the bakery. So first ever deaf jams, I remember being a little kid seeing Rundy and Rick Rubin, we didn't know what they were. Right. They came in and limos and stuff, the chains, public enemy. I met all of them. The BST boys were down there. When I was a little kid, look it up. Elizabeth Street in Manhattan was the first ever deaf jam studios. So you had that down the street around the corner on the Bowery was CBGB, O punk rock club and then literally on Mulberry, I mean the whole neighborhood was filled with the mob. Yeah, literally. So like two blocks on Mulberry is the Ravenite social club. Two blocks down about maybe three in. So the whole neighborhood was kind of live, but back then, Johnny, you didn't have cops and you didn't have phones the way you do today. So like when you hear like the songs of broken glass everywhere, remember that if you watch that video of like what the city was like, like literally burnt down building, like the low east side wasn't what it is today in Manhattan, you know what I mean? And crack just hit and age just hit. So there's like a lot growing up, a little kid in this wild city. Like I remember the subways or spray pain. My mom would be like, don't make eye contact with no one. We're on the subway, put you back to the wall. Always a guy would walk a home at night once it got dark like from a social club because there was social clubs everywhere and someone would always walk a home if my father wasn't around. Because the neighbor wasn't safe. And then when the crack hit, it was right down on Bleaker Street and there was an awning of a church and they would literally like line up like, I remember being a little kid lying up like New Jack City to get the crack and there'd be shootouts down the blog and my father and uncles would leave in the front of the bakery baseball bats because no one's coming, bro. So when he would, you know, when they would tell people, listen, you got to go down the street. They wanted to keep it safe for me and also the business was right there. People down the street and do whatever you got to do and when they didn't, I mean, bro, like literally, I was just telling you, like my kid lives in dripping springs, like we got deer and like, you know what I mean, like raccoons, like little foxes and stuff. And here I am, like watching literally, but I watch this several times, like men getting heads with open baseball bats for five years old. Because they violated. They didn't comply with my father and, you know, my family's wishes. And I remember one time in specific, it's like, you know, the memories when your kid really get implanted in your mind. And I just remember, like I knew when it was going to pop off. Four or five years old, I knew when something was, like the violence, like I already knew before it happened. I knew this guy, something's bad is going to happen. I just, you know what I mean? And he was banging dope in the, in the band in car, like a few buildings like to the side and they said, listen, my dad said, you got to go down the street and the dude like told them to go fuck himself and my soul, my father right in the bakery come out with the bat and just start crippling this guy in the car, breaking all the windows, crippling him, the cops finally come, right? They arrest my dad, they put them in cuffs, age just come out. So there's, there's, there's a needle in the car. The cop goes into the car and he gets stuck with the needle. He uncuffs my dad and he starts, remember the Billy Club? They starts crippling the guy with the Billy Club. So that's like, you know what I mean? That's like the wild life of my life as a little kid. Now the flip side is my mom would like try to like take me uptown to like the galleries, the museums to try to get me out of the neighborhood because uptown was like different than the neighborhood I grew up in back then. So she did try to have me like have culture and get out of the neighborhood, but bro that neighborhood was crazy as a kid. I remember they used to sell fireworks down in literally, man. I remember Louis Pigeon was the guy that used to get them. He would get them from China, but you were going drops like people would come from all over because it was illegal. My dad used to sell them like when he was a kid, my father had me young like 24, 25. My mom was like 20 and he's very young. So I remember him selling the fireworks and I remember just walking down literally fireworks everywhere as a kid just wild, you know what I mean? So you grow up different, you grow up seeing things very young. My father also was like addicted to cocaine and couldn't really tell me one about that huge part dealer. I mean it's all over Google now. like just the way like five, six years ago. And so you guys are like pretty new Italians. Your grandparents are from-- - My grandfather's father came here as a hatmaker, and then his brother started the bakery, and then he started working with him, and then my grandfather worked at the bakery with his brother. His brother became a union worker, and my grandfather kind of grew the bakery from the building where it's on Mah Street. They used to bake in the basement. He moved it to Elizabeth Street. It used to be Bavona's bakery, and he got them when they got out, and I lived above the bakery. - Hmm. - So he grew it. He grew it, like, did more wholesaling and made it to where they would deliver bread all over the city. Like Frank Sinatra would come all the time. And if you didn't have Parisi bread in one of the restaurants, then he wanted us to bring the bread to the restaurant. (laughing) - Just so he could have a little-- - He'd use the Parisi bread when he would come to Manhattan. - When he would come to Manhattan. 'Cause the restaurants have been out, they've breaded on the table. I'd either leave chips, but in New York, they leave bread. (laughing) It's case in the instant. Oh, it did. It was bread, you know, and if they didn't have it, Sinatra would call us up, and one of the drivers would go bring him bread. - So you didn't want to be in the bread business though, 'cause your dad, you saw all your friends were in the street. Your dad is-- - Well, my dad ran the bakery. My dad ran the bakery, but so now we moved to Staten Island, but he kept the apartment. So he kept the apartment above the bakery and that became the drop. So like, he was one of the biggest, you know, now it's well-- Now it's like, talk about restitution. My family needs it. He usually got pinched for gambling and pot. Meanwhile it's legal now. Now that the government wants a piece of it, it's okay. But about all the pinchers that he got and all the money that my family had to go for. - Was he running like gambling? - Some gambling stuff, but mostly it was mostly part. One of his last pinch he got caught in like a whole fucking, it was gambling. It was part cross country shit from Cali. This is like years ago. - So he was bringing in Cali, but-- - Oh, yeah, bro. At one point, I mean, he was one of the biggest dealers, you know, in the city. We were selling deaf gym studios. Like, you know what I mean? They would come in, his how it would work. Like, I remember his man up in the Bronx would come down a lot of times and he would bring in the bulk. I remember, I'm not going to say no names, but he'd come down with his gray hair, Chrysler Baron, blessed and Frank Sinatra music, right? That has to be making a turn, drop top. And he's got like 300 pounds of pot bales in the back in like, laundry bags. And we'd come running out the building, right? Out of the bakery, bring it into the bakery. There was a door that led to the building from the inside of the bakery and you go up and you chop it up. And that's how a lot of things went on. Guys would come into the bakery. They'd go into the door, they'd come up. They'd come down with a whole bag of bread. We're part underneath it. - So people that haven't been New York, these, what do you call, doors that go underground? - Yeah, it was a door. - It was a door into the front of the actual bakery, but inside of the bakery, there was a door that went into the building. - Right, right. - Yeah, so he really had the wholesale. - Yeah, that he was getting it on. So he had somebody, so the Bronx was the meeting spot. - Yeah, and then also, I mean, he had him all over guys in California that would come in and they would get it shipped over. All the higher-end stuff came from Cali. - That's, I didn't know Italian guys had it like that with the wheat. - My father was very big with that. My father was never a meirai. He was just associated with, you know what I mean? But yeah, he was just a hustler today, died. - But he also was a workman, like let's not make that. You know, you get influenced by your environment. His mother died at 14. He's living ways, living, you know what I mean? Five kids in an apartment. - That was my dad. - My dad, you know what I mean? Growing up like that. Now I lived in a two bedroom apartment in Manhattan and then we got like a little place in Staten Island. Then they got like a condo eventually out there. But my dad, like you grow up hard, you know what I mean? And you get influenced by your environment. Unless you got strong parents. But when you're like poor and you're trying to like get by, it's hard for people to parent a kid, of course. You know what I'm saying? You're in survival mode. Like if the people out there have no idea what the fuck's going on in the world. They're in survival mode. They don't even know nothing about it. Yeah, I know there's stuff that's coming. They just have zero idea because you're just in, I gotta pay my bills. I got, you know what I mean? Trying to get ahead. So he was just, he was just, see trauma. And I like talking about this because it gets passed down Johnny. It gets passed down until someone's able to take on all that shit. It takes that one person to change your whole family, whole paradigm of a family, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Definitely, definitely. I'm trying to think about the trauma that I have. Not much, I guess. Probably in small ways, you know. I mean, dude, I would watch my father get on and have to pull him out of an apartment and then like the rage that came after that, you know, blood coming out of the nose and shit. The insanity going to the New York Rangers 1994 Stanley Cup playoffs. Game seven of the Stanley cups and then the last row of the garden. But my uncle's boy is smoking crack in the bedroom and he's blowing coke. And this one's popping pills and they win the Stanley Cup greatest moment of my life. I know my father loves me because he took me to the game. Everyone's fucked up. Then we go back to the bakery after and he gets to no fight with these guys, pulls out a fucking machete outside the bakery, starts chopping the bar up. Takes me home that night, goes back into the city because I'm living in a standout and I'm a freshman in high school. I wake up seven o'clock in the morning like that was normal, by the way. And he's in a blackout, you know what I mean? He's destroying the fucking house. Like that's the insanity. Always wondering who's going to break down the doors and my father going to get killed is he going to die from fucking doing drugs. He's going to get pinched. I'm fucking 12, 13 years old thinking about this shit. Who's going to break in my fucking house and do you know what I'm saying? It's not normal. It makes everything, I want people to eat because I know a lot of gangsters listen to this podcast. I want them to hear what that does to the kid and then get what happens. You become the shit that you fucking ate it because you got no more soul. You got no more fucking soul. But you're like, whatever, I'm watching my father fucking be a disaster where everyone thinks he's good, but the home ain't fucking good. The home's vibrating in a negative vibration, 90% of the time. I don't know who's fucking walking in. I'm on eggshells all the time. You think that's good? Why? Because you guys fucking some money and a little bit of power in the street, but the reality is that it's like, it's like character versus reputation. Like a tree brings a shadow, right? The character's the fucking tree. The reputation is the shadow. Shit ain't real. So then how did you start emulating your father? Oh, bro. I mean, what are you going to do? I went to like, St. John's for like one year. I'm like, hanging out with them working at the bakery now, counting money, like, you know, I'm a kid, counting 100,000 cash. Like, that's like 18 years old. I'm like, I fucking do this shit. I don't want to fucking do this. I started working at the bakery and, you know, if you're hanging around the barbershop, you're going to get an haircut. So you just start doing everything and that's how it is back home. It's like cruise. Like you grow up and it's like the park and you look at the kids that are older and it's like, we emulate this shit. The good fellow is the sopranos. It's like, and our dads are it or like one of my friends is growing up there and not today but growing up there like whose father was a captain, whose father was, you know, a knock around guy. Everybody was, you know, especially when, yeah, from literally even to Staten Island, it's all blue collar, bro. It's only blue collar, you know what I mean? Like, today I've changed my life and became a different man. My name is a different. Like, you got the guy, there's a vice president of Honeywell, you know what I mean? Like, this guy is placed on the plate for the Vikings, you know, it's totally different. There it was like, fireman, you know, electrician, local three. These are fucking, you know, this is, this is your pet. I didn't see a lawyer. So, I did friends in your crew actually have family, like, yeah, me guys, can't be voices. Wow. Yeah. Wow. So then how did you guys first start getting down, was it with just selling weed? Selling weed, you know, fucking crews, who's cruised up and in this grow, you know, the street fighting, you know, talking about young, like teenagers, like the farm system, you know what I mean? Everybody's like positioning for, you know, who's the alpha, who's the alpha crew, who's the alpha in the crew, who's the alpha crew, you know what I mean? And so yeah, yeah, it was, you know, looking back on it though, Johnny, it's fucking retarded. What was your, what, of course, sure it is, it is, and I see like business and how you could like have this amazing fucking life and still go to sleep with you. I had no one's going to fucking, the cops ain't going to get you the, you know, no one's going to look to whack you or crack you over that with a bat, you know what I mean? Yeah. What position did you have? Were you the alpha? I mean, in my crew, I ran with a bunch of sick bastards, a bunch of crazy motherfuckers, but I was up there. could be more crazy. Like who could be more crazy? Where Where was your, where were you guys posted up? - Stand Island. - Here's Stand Island. - Yeah. - Yeah. - That's the suburb, so is it, like. - But the, it's the burial grounds, man. It's like people say that. It's like Howard Beach, right? Howard Beach and Queens, it's all Italian, bro. - Especially on the south shore now of Stand Island. It's all Italian, bro. It still exists, you know what I mean? - Sure. - Yeah, for sure. - So, so tell me like, did your friends go on? Did some of them go on to become made guys in the, in the mob and? - Yeah. - Oh, wow. Are any of them on the street today, are they all? - Yeah. - Still? (laughing) - Career guys. - Yeah. - Guys I know. - Oh wow. - You know what I mean, yeah. - Do they see you doing good? Are they happy for you? - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, everybody, you know? I changed my life. I did do things different, you know? But yeah, people are happy for me. - Did you start, like tell us when you got older and you start developing your criminality? What happened? - Well, bro, I mean, my house was insane. I started to do drugs, right? Pills and opiates and stuff like that. And, man, what I would do is like early on, I would just go rob a bunch apart from my dad's got, like, pounds and pounds of weed, dude. I'd just take whatever and just start, I had to draw, I had all the good shit, 100% profit. Then we started to sell different, you know, I would go get my own shit. I started to sell for my dad, you know what I mean? I was that progressed, sell the pills, all that stuff, so. - Were you good at it? Were you good drug deal? - No, bro, I wasn't. I was more tough, you know what I mean? I was quick to fight and people needed, like that was my lane. I was more of, like, quick to hit you with a hammer, whatever I needed to do. And if business needed to be handled, people knew to call me back then. - Wow. - Yeah. - That's ill. - I was not a, I was not a great drug dealer. - You kind of like your dad? Well, your dad was a pretty good drug dealer. - My dad was a great drug dealer. He was fucking phenomenal. Literally, died broke. Like, he took my whole family to the Super Bowl one year, when the Raiders went in. Like, not one person, like 10. But died broke. For what? None of them are around. None of them even called me. For what? - It's kind of good to die broke though, you can't. - Yeah, I guess, but I don't think so, dude. I think like we supposed to be here, because especially if you've got kids, 'cause you're gonna put them in a fucking position. Like, I had to come out here and change my whole fucking life by myself. Zorro, my wife with me. No connections, no nothing. Bill myself from the ground up, making 36,000 dollars a year. Like, I'm not trying to pass down fucking generational curses to my kid. I'm trying to set him up with character, integrity, new paradigm, and how he thinks and operates in life, and financially. Like right now, me and my kid, 'cause I got none of the, I just sold the company. I started a baseball card company with him. We sell baseball memorability cards, basketball, all that. The reason is he teaches him entrepreneurship. It teaches him, okay, we're gonna buy this for this card. We're gonna sell it for this. We got to pay eBay this amount. This is what it costs for all the labels and everything, and this is our profit. And then with that money, what we do is you got a brokerage account. He's nine years old, he gets the pick of stocks. Totally fucking different, bro. At seven, eight years old, I was going with my dad to haul him to drop off tomorrow with the dread, fucking chalk the tie. Good entrepreneurship is different, bro. So you gotta become different. Like as a dad, if you're looking to, you gotta elevate, bro. You can't live in the same fucking iOS. Like I'm not trying to be that guy from my kid. My kid. Not that it was bad. A lot of it was good. My father owed a guy an orange regret, all right? In the street, he got killed. My father paid the wife and the kid. That taught me mad lessons on loyalty and chagrity. It's just fucking sideways because it was a street debt. But there's a lot of great lessons in it, too, brother, that I still carry. I carry myself in that. I just don't want my son to laugh to like, like unlearn some stuff to learn some stuff. 'Cause there was a lot to be learned in that lesson right there how my dad showed up. Like he showed up in integrity, gave the family the money that he owed. No one's doing that shit. That's amazing. But I don't want to have to teach my kid a lesson in the street. I'd rather teach it him, you know, just by me showing up in integrity. So, I mean. Your dad was dealing with all neighborhoods, all manner of people. Yeah, Broston would come in and get weed like all over, bro. Like, Broston wise guys would come in and get weed and all over, bro. Like from all over. Yeah. You can google it. I'm not fucking it. I mean, he's a millie. You said he made millions. He made millions. He was moving hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of pounds a week constantly. And then the Hydro's and shit like that. Was he teaching you how to, how to, yeah. We are ready now. Fucking 12 years old. I was selling like nine bags and nickel bags with me and my friends. And the first time we got a rest, I was like 15 in the park. 'Cause they were awaited like another 20 minutes. They were caught to sail. 'Cause back then he had beepers. So I was hanging out at PS 52 Parkest that house. I was like our spot, Dungan Hills kids, you know what I mean? So we had the weed in the bushes. I know the kid was beefing me. He was going to pull up to the park. When I went into the bushes, the cops fucking already rested me. I was like, you jerk off. You could have waited like another. You would have had like an away by the case, you know? (laughing) So we were ready into it, bro. That's what I move to stop now. You got to realize I went to high school world Wootang. Like the Wootang brothers, I aimed to rug a child. All these dudes, you know what I mean? So it's like massive influence of hip hop, the street. It was just so much influence. Like I'd be listening to the Wootang. I'm like, I live on this shit in the house. - Yeah. - You think you're tough guys. - Yeah, no, I'm living on this shit. (laughing) Did you have brothers? - No, just me. - Really? Do you have cousins? - I didn't get anywhere. - I don't bother with, no, none of them were involved like that. Just one of my father's best friends, that was it. Like as far as that. I had uncles that were bookmakers. And you know, I've had cousins got, like everybody's got some form of hand and some. If had uncles that are gambling, been to prison, cousins been to prison, you know what I mean? My dad was in and out of jail, you know. - For sure. - So, but he never went away and did a long bit. - I have a bro. - No, never. - Never. - That's special. - Yeah. - That's special. - So I paid a lot of money, paid a lot of money, paid a lot of money, you know. Did he teach you that paying a lot of money to a lawyer gets you out of prison? (laughing) - Having a good Jewish attorney wife gets you out of prison. - For sure. - That's what got me out of a lot of things, like wife. - You also had family in the-- - And wife for me, yes, yes, that helped me. But how's the crazy push? There was times when they did pull the paperwork. Let's call it a pinch on some, like there's been times I crashed my car outside the Brooklyn battery time. I got in the fight with the cop. They locked me up in Brooklyn house. I get out on a Monday, I do it all over again. But the Monday, I told the cop about my cousin. They brought me home. So my wife comes home, she goes, "What the fuck is he doing here?" She goes, "We brought him home." She goes, "Why'd you bring him home?" (laughing) 'Cause I was a disaster, complete disaster. - So, if you start using, as you're selling weed-- - Yeah, but I started doing drugs at 12 years old, just to function at the house. It was just too much to even go home. So I started smoking weed about 12. I started doing pills about 14. They started to get really bad about like 1920, like the pills where I was like physically addicted to them. - Well, what are their percussions? - Percussions, like a day and back then, you know what I mean? So I created like a dependency with that, which took me down a whole nother road of just, oof, yeah. - Hills, so many people have been destroyed by that. - Destroyed by the opiates. Like, I just, you know, you come to the bakery and it's like, this gun's in the tile in the wall, you know? Like, it's like, go, and I'd worked it. You know, this guy comes in, go walk around the block, make sure he's not a cop, follow him. Like, that was part of like, the living bread. You know what I mean, every day, run up and get this, go drop this, show off, go collect this money. And I did it, like a fucking retard for my father. I didn't even make a lot of money doing it with him. Like, he was like, almost like, go do this. - So you're selling bread, you're working in the bakery. But every day with cops and robbers, like, we're selling bread, but we're doing a bunch of other shit too. Every fucking day, you know what I mean? There was the time to build and across the street. They put in the building up. We grabbed the form and leave the door open. So we stole all the fucking refrigerator cabinets. Everyone had cabinets that year in the neighborhood. (laughing) - The stoves, you know what I mean? - That's always scores. - Scores. - Always looking for scores. - Yeah, the mob or-- - I still am like that, but in business. - Right, right. - You know what I mean? - But that is what, that is the classic mafia mentality is always looking for the next score. - Mm-hmm, yeah, yeah. - And in that neighborhood, you can go around to a legitimate business and be like, "Hey, I got these brand new refrigerators, you know." - Oh, yeah. - 20% off, you know. - What out of dough? - Yeah, okay, sure. - Yeah, yeah, what out of dough? What out of dough? - Did the neighborhood know your family? Did they know, I mean, you got the most famous baker? - Yeah, everybody knows appreciate, Bakery. - I forgot about it. - It was so crazy, bro. Dora 9/11, here's a crazy story, right? Dora 9/11, 'cause my father was nuts. Like, he would still told me to, like, Salvation army, when 9/11 hit, he hated cops. He hated fucking cops. But when 9/11 happened, he'd be delivering bread to them, pizza, like, bro, there'd be times, like, guys are upstairs. And cops come in getting free pizza for us. Dora 9/11. - I mean, wow, there's a bunch of shit going on right there. - Going business up there. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, crazy fucking zany time. Like, but sometimes, like, sometimes I look back at smile at them. As much as they're not, it's not something I want to glorify. Like, some of this stuff was just so fucking crazy, bro. Like, that being one of them. You got cops walking in, you got guys counting fucking. God knows how much money chopping up, right upstairs. That's about to leave. - Yeah, I mean, once the cops leave, holy shit, bro. There was so much solidarity after 9/11, man. - Oh, bro, I wish I'll country to be like that now. - Yeah. So much solidarity, especially in New York. - New York, forget about it. It came so strong together, you know. - Yeah, so strong together. - So as your addiction progresses, as you get older, what happens? Like, how did that evolve or devolve? - I mean, you know, I think addiction is like the line in the sand that you say, you're not gonna cross and you keep crossing it and you keep crossing it and, you know, when you're making money and you know, you got like, like, look, I'm back on it, it's like so stupid. But like, you have a rep in your neighborhood, you got money, you got the girl, your dad's who he is. And, you know, you think that you're somebody, but you're really not, you're not anything. You don't stand on nothing and just the pain of my life, honestly, brother and being around all of that and like my nervous system constantly being hijacked. The drugs just eased me and you don't know that it's taken you down a road until you're down the road already and you don't even realize like you can't get back. You're taking them every day, you're taking them. Everything's still good. And then that one day, you don't got them. And you're like, what the fuck's going on? And I can't tell anybody because there's no, I could tell the street that this is what's going on with me. And that keeps you in that sick cycle for a long time. Start to panic. And it was always pills or did you get it? Always pills. I mean, I did coke and shit like that, but it was pills was my thing. It was in heroin where you get it. No, I never did heroin, pills, only pills. Yeah. Right, so then the perks came out. Perks, then I started, then the fucking blue ones came out, the oxys, and that's when it was just like savage, bro. Like physical dependency, needing it all the time, nightmare. While I'm still trying to function out in the streets. You know, complete nightmare. Are you banging them? Are you shooting them? No, I would just chill them up, eat them, you know? Oh fuck, it's disgusting, bro. It just takes you down a very dark road, dark road. But I know why I went through everything that I went through in my life. Like I know why I went through the addiction, the street life, the fucking hot chance plant. Like every time we go to something hard and we face it and we go on the other end of it, we become wise or stronger. And what we are able to do is be able to help a lot of motherfuckers that went through the same shit that you went through. The universe always is putting you through something for a reason, you know? So how did you get out of New York? Or what led you to your, to the bottle? Honestly dude, like overdose treatment episodes and then out of jails. Like my wife defended me in court. We get married. She does want to change a name for three fucking years. Have a big wedding. You know, I'm fucking detoxing at the fucking wedding. Like nightmare. Like nightmare life. And it's just the years and years of fucking pain. And you know, yeah, you make a lick or you do something like that. But we got nothing to show for any shit. We got nothing to show for nothing, you know? And then for whatever reason, July 31st of 2011, I fucking owed some money out in the street and at this point, like fucking bro, like it got to a point where like no one wanted to be around me, no more. Like it got bad. You owe money for drugs? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, like pills, pills. And this dude came to my house looking for money. I didn't have money to pay the motherfucker. My wife paid him. I got no fight with him. And that night, I just fucking said enough's enough. I looked myself in the mirror. I said, bro, you're 31 years old. I just came out of like another thing that she got me out of. I got a one away, you know what I mean? And I says, it doesn't matter. Like you're in a fucking ditch. Who gives a fuck how you got here? You got to focus on getting out of the ditch. And my life changed on that day, bro. A lot of work. 15 years of work, but it changed on that day, you know? I was living in New York and I had gone to treatment. I had been in and out of jail. I can't even count him any fucking times. And he just gets tired, man. He gets fucking tired of this shit, all of it. All the bullshit, the street shit, all of it. And when you finally fucking get tired enough of shit, you wouldn't do something different. And I did do a lot of humility. I was working, I just called the buddy up, doesn't treat me when in Texas in 2006. And I'm like, bro, I gotta get the fuck out of here. And he's like, well, I'm opening a treatment center. So I took a job for like 36,000 hours a year and came out here and worked all the way in fucking Smithville, Texas, just to fucking, it was kind of like a get well fucking job. Just to get the fuck out. Like a refugee dog. Like I didn't come here like I picked here. Like this shit was like straight refugee. Get the fuck out. If I stood up there, I was going to wind up either getting killed or overdosed or I would have caught a case where I would have did a lot of time. Like bro, I was the type of dude one night. I got no fight with this kid at Millen Beach. There's the younger guys. And I throw the kid a beat and they start chasing me with baseball bats. I am hiding under a fucking car. But I come out, bro, and I go to my house and I get my shotgun. And I'm walking around Father Coppa down the boulevard and standing on them ready to kill these kids. That's where I would go. And if I would have saw them that night, I feel bad for my future self. And then because I would have fucking blasted the whole car 'cause that's how fucking insane I was then. That's the type of motherfucker I was. The only way that motherfucker's coming out is if the world comes to an end. But he's fucking not around normal. He's not running the show. You get sick and tired of that shit. You waking up in another fucking jail cell. You're like, what the fuck is going on in my life? What are you getting arrested for? Oh, dude, pills, fucking fights, car racks, flipping cars. You name it, dude. I fucking, I've flipped cars, I've crashed cars, I fought with cops, I fucking forget it, dude. One time I got in a fight with auxiliary cop and my think of my cousin came over as a sergeant at the Berry Home Projects. I press into a lady, he comes, whatever. I start fighting with him. She comes, I got 150 Xanax in my balls. Thank God, I wake up, I'm in a fucking blackout. And I'm in the hospital bed and I'm fucking locked on a handcuffed to the bed. And I got a rookie cop watching me 'cause I gotta go to jail. And I'm like, bro, I got a piss. I can't do it what you hear, could you just go out? So as soon as he went out, he did. I threw the fucking 150 Xanax down the needle thing. You know, the needle thing, bro. Wild fucking stories, you know what I mean? Yeah, and I could have did time for that. The Xanax, yeah, bro. So you were moving pills, too. Pills, weed, coke, whatever, bro. Like, it's just like, it's disgusting, you know? Especially when you're in addiction, it's like you just hustle and hustle to maybe have a little something, but you gotta feed your habit. At that point, you know what I mean? Like, everybody was like, we don't got you no more. My dad, the street, everybody was like, no, my cousins were like fucking done. Everybody, my wife. Yeah, everybody was like, no more. You know? Yeah, and I wasn't hurt your dad. You know, as much of a mess as he was, at least he kept the business straight. I was a complete disaster. I was, he would hide and blow coke. He'd hide. I would be out in public, just like fucking wild, you know? Yeah. So you had to escape your environment. Yeah, brother. Yeah, and had opportunity out here to be able to do that and have like a fresh start, and really just work on developing the man that I admire most. And that's what I've been doing for the past, like almost 16 years. It's just getting better. I think it's hard for people that come from, you know, places like New York, 'cause it's a center of everything. It's a center of the world. You know, if you grow up as an addict in Smithville, Texas, you can't wait to get the fuck out. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 'Cause it's a shit place, you know? My fans know I don't think much of Texas. But yeah, to have to leave the greatest city on earth, you know, that's as humility involved. Without a doubt, bro. You know, I still miss it. I go up a ton, but yeah, there was a lot. It was a lot. I've had a crazy life, you know? I've had a very different life than most, you know? But since the, you know, all of that coming out here, I have made an amazing life for myself, you know? the past 50. 15 plus years. I've made an amazing life for myself. Married houses, sold to business, you know, wrote a best-selling book, you know. - Did you ever relapse? - I have not relapsed, no. I got sober in 2006, and I had about a year of clean, and then I relapsed, and I got sober in 2011, but I have not relapsed since 2011, yeah. And they gave me the meds when I was in the hospital 'cause I was in so much pain, and I still, when it was done, it was done. 'Cause they give you the oxygen stuff. They when they, when they throw this, and then when they saw your chest open, forget about it. - All right, so talk about that. - This? - Well, I mean, you're talking about the whole fucking thing, 'cause not just this, you know, a heart transplant. - Right. - So I, this is crazy. This is where like, it's hard sometimes for me. Coming from where I did, and then becoming a businessman. Those are hard sometimes. So I, I had a consulting business, and I had a client for years, five years, helped them do very well. They were doing very bad, and over the years, we did well together. Long story short, January of 2023, I developed a cough, go to five different doctors, or misdiagnosis me, to tell me that I got this red pneumonia called organizing pneumonia. I had a appointment with a cardiologist, but I canceled it 'cause I just went and see this pulmonologist. I went and see a gastro, I went and see two primary care physicians. So this cough's persisted for five months. No one could tell me what it is. Then I finally see the pulmonologist. He says it's organizing pneumonia. 3% of the population has it after COVID. So he put me on high dose steroids, and a moxasillin sent me home. I start the meds, it gets worse. The cough's getting worse now, cough and orange shit up. So I called the doctor back. They gave me more meds. I canceled the cardiologist appointment that I had two weeks after the pulmonologist, because I just got this diagnosis, you know. But I'm in shape, so they're like misdiagnosis me, dude. So anyway, long story short, I may 8th, I cough up literally half a bottle of blood. Yeah, and my skid six at this time, six years old. And so I go to the hospital here, I go see the doctor and he goes, man, you gotta go to the ER. So mind you all so it says wild, Johnny. My niece is needed, a kidney transplant, her whole life. Like, she was born with one kidney. She's with me like two weeks prior to me going to this hospital. Watching me be sick, but I'm like still soldier and throw my nieces here, take it and then I'm out going, I'm tired. This cough's like nasty. I knew something was wrong, seriously wrong, 'cause it's months now and I traveled all over. And so they admit me into the hospital there in Austin and they put me in the ER and they say that now I have sepsis. So now they pump me with 17 liters of fluid, okay. I don't have fucking sepsis, all right. Then my wife leaves because my kid's six, she's gotta go get 'em from school. She's like, I'll be back tomorrow, you know what I mean? And one of the nurses puts the wrong pick in my arm, infiltrates my arm from the inside out, give me a third degree burn in my arm. And then finally, a doctor walks in and goes, "Mr. Parisi, you don't have sepsis, "you have 9% ejection fraction. "You live your kidneys and your heart's feeling. "You have less than a 10% chance of survival rate "when you have under 10% ejection." That means your heart's only pumping at like 9%. So they take me to, bro, my wife's in here for jail. See, everything I know is here is like more than what we say. - That must be terrifying to have the doctors. - Well, by myself. - Straight up, tell you, hey, you're probably not gonna make it. - Bro, I'm by myself now. They're gonna take me to Temple, Texas, a town of 30,000 people, Jews worship in the Temple. A town of 30,000 people, they're gonna take me an hour and a half up at like one o'clock in the morning on May 9th, right? And my wife's waiting there with a picture of my son in his gap capping gown from fucking kindergarten begging me to live, and I got 10 minutes to sit with her and discuss life without me. So they put me on the fucking table, and I'd die on the table. I left it. Like, you're not Johnny, I'm not fucking Frank, I don't know what the fuck with no one says. I was looking at the body of Frank Parisi. My life was fucking wild. I was with my friend, who years ago, I helped get clean and sober, went back to Stan Island and he got killed in home invasion. He was with me. He was gonna take me to what's next, and I had a vision of my fucking wife walking with another man, with long fucking hair, with my son. And I said, I gotta come back and the voice, the telepathical fucking voice that I spoke to said, 'cause I'm not this guy, bro. Like, look at what we just fucking discussed. I'm not woo-woo, you know what I mean? - So, I said, I gotta come back from my kid, and they told me that you're gonna suffer. So I come back into the fucking bed, right? I got this patch on my arm, I'm in a fucking bed. They got it, board it up. Like, and they're walking in with hazmat shoots, or the doctors, because the orange stuff, they thinks tuberculosis, they did save me. It was a doctor then, and doctor ready, who's not there no more. You know what doctor ready is? He's at my donor's stepmom's hospital in Dallas. Dr. Ready brought his whole, talk about connection in God. Dr. Ready brought his whole team from Mount Sinai, in New York. Dr. Thomas, Dr. Bacon, all of them were there. How about Dr. Thompson's father-in-law was the wise guy. In the middle of 30,000 people. You don't think God sends his winks? So now, I'm in this fucking bed for nine days. In February, I make an appointment with a medium, 'cause I want to talk to my father. Hold on. Have you already got the heart transplant? Oh, okay. No. We don't even know I got it. Ah. We don't even know what's going on. They're telling me I might need a mitral valve replacement. They might, they're saying I might go home with meds. One of the doctors, Dr. Anand, is just telling me that I might need a heart transplant. I'm like, get the fuck out of here. I've been a bed not really known what's going on, Johnny. They got me in this bed nine days, hazmat shoots coming in. I'm like, what the fuck's going on? Nobody could tell me. See, they still don't know I had a heart transplant. That's how I know my whole journey spiritual, bro. So now I got, I'm in the bed nine days. I lost 40 fucking pounds. They finally put the fucking pump from my groin to my neck so I could start to walk again. I gotta learn how to walk. You know, bed nine days. You gotta learn how to walk. If I didn't have the muscle, I would have died. And I made an appointment with a medium in February and I got this appointment with the medium in fucking May 18th. I'm in the bed 10 days. How wild is this shit? And I want to talk to my father. So I get on, my wife's like, I don't want you talking. I say, I don't care, Christine the medium. She's on Instagram. She's down in Tampa, Florida. I get on with her. Fuck, I love that girl. I get on with her and she knows everything about my father. But you could do Google, right? So you could learn a lot of things. But she had three things she told me, right? She goes, all your doctors are from New York, right? I say, yeah, they all from New York. You know, your dad sent them there for you. How the fuck does she know that all these doctors are from New York? How does she know that? Then she goes, he keeps telling me about a birthday and a pendant and a chain. The next day my mom comes in from New York to visit with me. I'm in the fucking bed. I tell her about this medium. She goes, I bet she had two things wrong. I told my mother. She knew all the doctors were from New York. She knew everything about that. You know, everything about the relationship. But the only thing she had two things wrong. She said, it keeps telling me about a birthday and a pendant and chain. My dad's mother, I told you earlier, died when he was 14. May 19th was her birthday. I never met her. He was telling me today's, my mother's birthday tomorrow. He says, the pendant and chain, when my mom goes, when your dad died, your antelores gave me a pendant or your grandmother. I gave it to you and Camille, who's my dad's sister. I face time are in the bed and she's wearing the pendant and chain, dog. So I said to myself in that moment, see, Johnny, everything that I've been through in my life, prepared me to face exactly what I was facing in the fucking hospital. I'm talking about from watching the baseball bats to all the fucking chaos in the street. My addiction, overcoming that. All of it prepared me to face what I was about to face, which was the biggest battle of my life. So I said to myself, maybe you haven't been in this position before, but you've been in J.A.L.'s hospitals, institutions, you don't need. You've been around things that you didn't know you were going to get out of, but the difference today is that you developed a man that you admire and you have a relationship with God today. So when you're going to face this shit, you're going to face in it with the old motherfucker. You're facing it and you're going to walk with God and I said to myself, life is a mirror. So what I give to it is what I'm going to get back. And if I sit in some victim bullshit around this shit, then that's why I'm going to get back. But if I start to bring love to the unit, I start bringing fucking light and love. I bought the doctors and nurses breakfast lunch and then I start to get better treatment. And I say, I got to get up and walk. Now I got to learn how to walk again. So I started to walk five fucking miles. They put 13 staples in my chest. I took ibuprofen. They put this pump in my chest called an impeller pump to see if my heart's going to recover. How do you process all this shit? All this shit that I've been doing over the past fucking decade to develop that man that was able to face this shit. That's the real shit. And you've had the hard transplant now. No. - No, bro. - This is. - Fucking nightmare. - No, I'm in the hospital now three weeks. They tell me they're gonna debrid my arm. They go and check to see now if the impeller pump's gonna make the hot recover. It doesn't. Now I need a heart transplant. Now I gotta get on a list and wait for somebody to fucking die. What am I doing with that shit? So now I got fucking the arm debridement. Where they're gonna make this much of my arm this and 'cause they gotta clean it out. And then they're gonna take a piece of my leg and put it on my arm. And I'm like good because if I get a heart transplant and I survive it, I'm on these meds for the rest of my life called tackle limes. It's anti-rejection where it makes my immune system lower. So I said let me get this done. And they said it's gonna be six to eight weeks for you to get a heart transplant because you're all positive. So they do the, they do, I'm like good. That'll give this time to heal. It'll heal and then I'll get the heart transplant 'cause it'll heal fast before the heart transplant. I get it on June 1st. I get the arm debridement. They come in the next day, one day. They say we got a heart for you tomorrow. And I get a heart in one fucking day. And I told you Dr. Reddy is at my donas step mom's hospital in Dallas. - Who's your donor? - My donor is a 19 year old girl called Kaley Beardin. So I come out, I get the heart transplant, I get the gift of life. If you go my Instagram, I wrote because gratitude is super power. And I wrote, I don't care about pain. I'm grateful to feel and be alive because it's true. I did every morning, I would just be grateful to be alive. Maybe I'm not like my best self, but I gotta fight in chance to be here for my son. I gotta fight in chance to be here for my wife to be able to raise him. And I said to myself, what's the gift and what you're going through Frank and what are you gonna become because of it? And I said, let me write this book for my son. And I started to write the fucking book. I started to walk in those holes five miles a day in the hospital, five miles around the ICU unit. They got me a Superman cape. They would play the Superman music when I would walk around the hole 'cause I was getting the other people up because brother, when you're down, you know how you get up, you start giving love to others. You start being a service to other fucking people, even while you're dying because recovery taught me that. So I've been sober almost 16 years. At that time, it was 12. So like I knew, show up in service, call them other fuckers up, seeing how they're doing. I was still working, putting people in substance abuse treatment that I was working for, right? With the consulting. So I get out, I get out of the hospital, I start to build everything back. I gotta go through 16 biopsies in one year where they go on my neck and take three pieces of my heart. I want them awake, I take no medication, braw, right? And you know what I mean? The shit that I gotta go, I go for a procedure in two weeks where they go, I gotta sign my life away to check the vessels in my heart. The amount of shit that I go through, I stay connected to God. That's how I get through all this shit. So now I get the heart. I come out, the company that I help build for five years cuts to me, how about that? So now it's like I went from making money, doing really well to figuring this shit out. So I lost my heart, I lost business, and now I'm sitting there and I built it all fucking back, Johnny. I built it all back through God, through my non-negotiable daily habits, through my mindset, never tapping. The victim and the villain gotta die. The company that I got cut from, I partnered with my brother a few years ago. I just got bought out by them. We became the number one treatment center in San Antonio, emotion wellness, shout out to all of them there. I love you guys. And that company fucking went under, talk about the one that cut me. Talk about like, Karmic realm, I told you so, Karmic realm. The lady that did that to me, died tragically in a car accident with a husband. Talk about Karmic fucking realm, bro. But goes around, comes around. That's why I'm not trying to live no dirty life ever, bro, because it's recorded. And I believe that happened to me because I did a lot of things that I couldn't make right in my life. So you know what, law of averages, here's your arm, Doug. Straight up, bro. So now it's like, what do I do, right? My book becomes the best seller. I buy into another company, which I just got bought out of. And then I randomly get the mail on a fucking September Friday night, 'cause I don't get the mail, my wife does, and I get it. And it's my donor's family. And my donor's dad is renewing his vows with his wife, Bonnie, of 10 years, the next day in Longview, Texas, and inviting me and my family out to the wedding renewal vows. And they all listen to our heart and my body. Oh, she had six little sisters. Oh, man. I get emotional. And I know what I'm here, bro. I know why the fuck I'm here, you know? So you've got a 19-year-old, just '92, 'cause two years. So you have this young girl's heart brand new, basically, you know, young person's heart in you. Do you feel better because you have this? I mean, obviously you do, but I'm saying like, do you feel like, you know, 'cause you have this young person's organ in you and you're a middle-aged man? So do you feel like? I feel way younger. Yeah. And I feel like I went more emotional than I've ever been. I like animals that come to me more now. She loved animals. Yeah, dude, it's weird, bro. That's weird. It's super weird. Should I get a heart transplant? What I recommend, dude, but you gotta realize your heart is your aura. It's electromagnetic. It gives your aura out. I have a female heart now. It's not mine. I have female DNA in me, bro. I completely transform me. It's not like a liver, a kidney, or a lung. It's your heart. I feel her heart beating to keep me alive. It's different. It's very different. I'm very close to the family, you know? Like, not super close, but like, we stay in touch. We stay in touch. We see each other every once in a while. I spoke out a spire tour out in San Antonio last summer. And he and Bonnie and Matthew came. My donor's parents while I spoke. That's amazing. Yeah, it's powerful, brother. It's powerful. But I see where everything I've been through, bro. Like, even like I was telling you before, like, this book has not to do with me. It's like, this is helping so many people. I told you. And there was a man in there and he says, I was at the vine appointment that I be here for three years to hear you speak. That's not me. I'm the vessel of which the power works through. Through my journey, because I walked with the power. I never gave up. I still don't give up. I walk with faith as hard as life hits sometimes. 'Cause it's always going to fucking hit us. And what do I teach my son, resilience? He wants his dad go from the fuck almost dead. Brink of death to building everything back. Like, how can I ever be a victim? He's watching me. Then he become a victim. That victim always got to die in life. Otherwise, you don't have a move ahead. Have you helped any of your old crew? I've helped a lot of guys. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You have? They said me guys from Detroit was, I'm like, these got to get out of life. Like, do you expect them? Well, you want to make them recovered and then go back to the life you guys are living. (laughing) Yeah, getting sober. You got a gamble and problem, Coke problems. Like that and like, it's like, bro, you got to completely remove yourself from this element. What about cats from New York? Yeah, some, some, some. I got a mix of friends. I got a mix. A lot of them are dead, who got killed, who's in prison, who's out, you know, some are just drug addicts. I've tried to help along the way. Some guys are wise guys. They're doing what they're doing. Do you have people who got killed? Yeah, I got friends that are dead. Oh yeah, you said they do that. There was a home invasion on them. Yeah, that was one of my friends. My friend Mel got murdered. He was a, he was called murder mel. He was a black eff Italian, one good friend of mine. But he was a stick-up kid, you know what I mean? They got him in New York. They hogged him, blew his brains. He lived for, he was jacked. You, your height and like, brollet. And he lived for like six months after they blew his fucking head off. Like a vegetative state, you know? Yeah, he had a buck 50 on his face. Like he would just go, you know, like the, you know, he was, he was bad. I'm around maniacs. And I was born into sociopaths. So as I could commiserate. And, and your friend that got murdered in Staten Island, when you, you saw him, you were talking to him when you were under, when you were in the hospital. Mm-hmm. Yeah, he was with me. Hey, were you like looking down at my body? Everything was black like your room. I went into a dark space. But I was looking down at my body. I believe with consciousness. 'Cause like I was able to, like, he wasn't, he was with me 'cause I knew he was with me. I didn't see him. But I knew it was him. And you could communicate telepathically. And then I was able to see myself on the ventilator. In visions. Is that like DMT? You know what's crazy? My friend called me after my boy, Mike, and he had the same exact experience on DMT. Same exact experience as me on DMT. Same experience. Yeah. And so many things have been strange over the past three years in my life. Sometimes I think I'm dead and this is like another realm that I stepped into. 'Cause I mean, my life got so much left and so much came. It's gotten a lot bigger. The network. is like tremendous. The people, quality of people that I know, it's very different, it's strange. And the experiences that I've got to have over the past three since this has happened has been absolutely phenomenal. 'Cause that's what makes your life. When I was sitting in the bed, it wasn't to watch the cause, the houses, or just bullshit, it was the experiences and the people I helped along the way. That's all I kept thinking about, you know? So if you had a narrow down, like your experience in that, and you know what your book is about, like what is your message? Embrace abundance, bro. You can rewrite the story any single time, you know? I always say this, my book is about a journey through faith, family, health, hustle, and purpose. I feel like if you just focus on those five things in life, you're gonna have a real good life. Don't compare yourself to others. Don't worry about where you currently are, where you started in life. The only race that matters is yours. So have a clear cut vision for what it is that you want out of your life, get precise on the man. And if you have a hard time with that, what's the man you admire most? In faith, in family, in health, in hustle, in purpose, and go create that motherfucker. Anybody could create anything. Our sole purpose here is to be evolutionary beings. And then the back side is to serve, help the next man to become that. It's not just a selfish, you know? It's all just about me, the rising tide raises old boats. So as I elevate and evolve, so does everyone around me. And that's our purpose here. Evolution of the mind, body, and soul. So you think as a human species we are evolving, 'cause if everybody does that, then the world just by mathematics becomes better. Absolutely, and I think like we're energetic beings, the more that we all start to raise the vibration, things will change. But there's still, I feel a lot of energy, bro. A lot of energy from people. You could see who's trapped in like the old earth and who's in the new one, bro. I'll be honest with you. I could feel it, you know? Imagine you talking to your great-grandfather, fresh off the boat, this shit. Well, what the fuck is he talking about? What are you talking about? Yeah, right? Yeah, I know, I know. Yeah, I know. Fucking a million miles away. Totally different, bro, you know? But I know why I went through everything that I went through. Every all roads lead to shunny, you know? And now I get to help. I sold books in 15 countries, bro. I got to follow, you know, I'm not huge. If I got like 20-something thousand followers, I get to help people, I get to spread a message of hope, be a lighthouse for someone on that day, you know? And I'm not perfect and I'm not made of steel. And I still have my days that I need that light as. We all go through our human out here, bro. But you can't do any of that. Hope, hustle, faith, family, if you're on drugs. Never. You're trapped in a loop of addiction. I was thinking more and more. I was thinking about this yesterday. It's like, if they can keep the whole population addicted to drugs and gambling and pornography, it reduces our ability to fight back, you know? Well, create. Or create. Because money is everything, like here in this realm, it's like money equals more power, right? So they don't want that. They don't want collaborations. They don't want any of that. That's why they got gas station heroin now. They got all this fricking drugs in the gas station. - Freedom. - Create them and the 708 and the feel free. And it's like, they got the gambling on your phone and the porn on your phone. It's like in the apple, you know what I'm saying? - Fight of the apple. That's the fucking symbol of fucking apple. - Now, it's all a side hub, dog. Once you zoom out and look down, once you've gotten out of the survival of society and you got time, you got money and you get to zoom out and see what's really going on here. You see what the fuck's going on. Just stay in your vibration, man. Faith, family, health, hustle and purpose. Fuck the noise. Everything else is noise, you know? There's a lot of distractions nowadays, you know? - It makes it difficult. - They try to make it very hard for people, you know? I struggle with that just not, you know, looking at Twitter and not doing scrolling. - Me too. All of us, bro. And we're like aware. - Yeah. - Yeah. - More higher level of humans and it still impedes the sickness impedes in you, you know? Why does somebody get off drugs? - X for help. Got the X for help. There's no shame. I mean, all the shit I've been through, you know? And there's people worse off than I was, you know? And that are doing it. You got X for help. You need intervention through community and environment. You need a new community and a new environment. You got X for help. And then you'll create that tribe, you know? - And then you get to your point. You're able to stand on your own, you know what I mean? Like I did a ton of AA early on. I mean, I'll go once in a blue. It's not like a thing that I have to do every day. Do you know what I mean? We're in the beginning. It was like, no, I'm going like several times a week to this. - Don't sponsor. - I got it. - Doing service commitments, doing all that stuff, you know? But like I find with anything, right? Like even therapy, like a therapist shouldn't be your therapist's favorite. That's not a good therapist. At some point, you got a lot of walk on your own. You know, I live the 12 steps, but I don't frequent meetings as much. But I'm a service. I'm reviewing my day. I turn my will in my life over to care God. Every single day is in control. You know, I'm checking self accountability. If I need to make an amends, I'll make the amends. I want to keep my side of the street clean all the time. Because we're being observed, dude. - Have you made amends to anybody who heard in the street? - Yeah, yeah, crazy one, bro. I robbed the kid a bunch of steroids back in the day, right? I, when I, when I first came back home, after being out here for like a couple of years, I got to go home a little bit. People see me here and there, right? I ran into this kid in the gym. I go, bro, he comes up to me because I don't want no problems with you. I said, bro, I don't got no problems. I says, I got to make an amends to you. I owed him like 1500. I had it on me and I went to give it to him. He didn't even take it. - He's like, we're straight. - Yeah, yeah. - You don't want your money. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm not going to go fuck, this guy's a maniac. He looked like fucking, you know what I mean? You got to let, kind of let sleep in dogs lay sometimes on things and just never do it again, dude. - Yeah, wow. - And be of service. Still be of service. I still do talks and treatment centers and things. All free, you know? Even the book, you make no money on an Amazon book. It's all, it's all free. Plug the book. It's called Embrace Abundance. It's a journey through faith, family, health, hustle and purpose. It's on Amazon. It went best seller in Germany, Canada, and America. So I got to help a kid in Germany about this. 'Cause it is. The family finds me on social media. This kid's had a half a heart. He won't get out of bed. He's 17 years old. Born with a half a heart wave for us, a hot transplant. They found me in Germany and the family reaches out and says, could you make him a video for us? I make him the video to kids. 'Cause if you go on my social, you see me doing squats. Like, while I'm waiting for a hot transplant, don't walk in with the Superman cape. In the hospital. And so I send them a video. And then the mom and the sister send me him. Don't push ups. Walk in. You know what I'm saying, bro? I don't even know this fucking guy. But that's why we go through what we go through to give that fit. 'Cause I know what that family's going through and I don't know them. But I know the fear, the anxiety that like, what is my future gonna look like? And I'm like, dog, your future's gonna be great. It's gonna be great, you know? Did he make it? He made it, yeah, yeah, yeah. But you gotta keep this correct. Evolution of my body and soul. None of the victim. You can't get down. That'll change your whole frequency. You'll die faster. Yeah, if you're a victim, you're also, having the victim complex is deep narcissism. And you have less empathy. Tucker Carlson was talking about this last night. He's talking about Israel and how they've, for so long, they've been propagandized to call themselves the victims. While everybody hates us, we are the victims. We, everybody wants to kill us. So what is that? When you walk around with that in your bones, you're immediately gonna have, look at people as not human. Of course, right? 'Cause if you're always a victim, while this person isn't as valuable, you they deserve to die or get killed or whatever you pressed. And so just on an individual level, if you're a victim, then you're just, you're staying stuck. You're stuck. Victim and villain have to die in order for you to move forward in life. And I learned that a long time ago. That's good, victim and villain. The villain too. Definitely. Just as much. Yeah, exactly. Damn, you really had like one of those things that we all want, which is this conscious experience, this out-of-body experience, but just not on the brink of death. Nobody wants to get in a heart transplant. You know, it's woken me up to what's important. Like, I'm coaching my son's baseball game tonight. Like, I'm at all the games I've taken him everywhere. He's done a podcast with me. Like, we have a business together. The baseball courts. like it's what's important is my wife and my son. You know, I mean the people that mean the most to me like it wakes you up tonight And it also woke me up to like do it now Don't like I took him I took him to or I went to every NBA final game this year In San Antonio. I'm a big Knicks fit I went to all three. Yeah. I sat game two I saw a Pat Ewing and John Starks and Alan you stand and walk like phrasia I made reels with stocks like do it now Yeah, and I didn't even mean to buy those tickets. They were like five thousand a ticket I accidentally on game time. I'm on game time. My wife goes come outside. I call my boy Brad I'm like bro tickets are 600 upstairs game two. I got you you drive to San Antonio He's like I'll be there in an hour. It's like 4.30. I put my phone in my pocket the apps open I was gonna buy six hundred out tickets and buy five thousand out tickets. I spent ten thousand dollars I'm like bro, you gotta paint my fence. Yeah I'm like half sick. I'm like I kind of went to Italy Yeah, so I go down to the game and I'm sitting like 10 rows off the court who's in front of me Pat Ewing John Starks I was worked every fucking penny because life's about the experience And I'll never forget that and then on June 3rd of 2023 was game one That was my third my year three of my heart transplant anniversary. I got to take my wife and my son I got to take him to game five was in a crying like do it now, bro Like fuck it, you know what I mean? Don't wait start the business X the girl out travel do it now We are not promised. I didn't think that when they told me I have this Corp that I was gonna be facing a heart I've all the stuff that I faced. I did not think any of that, bro You know what I mean talk about getting punched in your face. Yeah, no shit So now I get my my right hot cat done, which is like a procedure. They do Every year and after this one, I don't get it for two more years because I'm doing really well health wise But they go in on October 27th into me my body and check all the vessels in my heart and talk about Synchronicity, right my niece is getting hot kidney transplant on October 27th the same day as me bro. Wow You can't make orders up Amazing life, bro. You can't make it up. Frankie boy. Thank you so much for coming in man Thanks for having me. Yeah, it was good to be this was really good You know worried that we were gonna get more into like the like we talked about the street stuff But I like talking about this stuff more But I like people to know like it doesn't matter where you're at you can always change it doesn't matter Well people had to know where you came from You know what you went through so absolutely, you know, it was a special time In fucked up ways, but still special and it made it gave you the grit, you know, absolutely So it was worth it and it gave my son he gets to he gets to a witness his father resilient Like I he'll tell you when things get hard he'll say right away. We come back a hundred times stronger You know, I mean so he's already on there, you know for that. I won. Yeah, I'm out of my set. Yeah, you broke the curse. I did Congratulations for that, you know what I mean? So go check out follow my Instagram Check out the Frank Parisi 2011 and then you could get my book on Amazon It's also the links in the bio. I also do like coaching. I have a coaching course that you guys could buy It's it's Frank Parisi Academy. It's like 499 or something like that. It's a 21-week course for people to embrace abundance Love it man. Go get it. Thanks Frank. Oh, thanks for having me. You got this was good good. Cool. See you guys next time. Peace You