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Being STRONG is more than just how much weight you can lift.
The Strong New York Podcast is dedicated to inspiring you to become your strongest self- in the gym, in business, in relationships and in life.
Join Kenny as he sits down with his strong as fuck buddies and shoots the shit on what it takes to be strong willed, strong minded and physically strong. Season one features everyone from entrepreneurs and local business owners to doctors and industry leaders in the fitness and wellness space.
With over a decade of experience, Kenny Santucci has made himself known as one of New York City’s top trainers and a thought leader in the health and wellness industry. After transforming his life at 15 years old through fitness, Kenny made it his mission to transform the lives of those around him.
Kenny has trained some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, including Jon Bon Jovi, Liev Schreiber, and Frank Ocean, and has been tapped as a fitness expert sharing his training approach with Men’s Health, Men’s Journal, Runner's World, SHAPE, Well+Good, among other publications.
Kenny is the creator of STRONG New York, NYC's only Health and Fitness Expo. Strong New York is an immersive day of workouts, wellness experiences, panel discussions, and inspiring conversations with the best in-class wellness professionals, industry leaders, and change makers who are sharing their expertise on today's hottest wellness trends and first-hand experiences on how to optimize your overall health and life.
You can find Kenny at The Strength Club, his private training and group strength training facility in the heart of Manhattan located on 28th and 5th Ave in New York City.
Welcome back to another episode of Strong Your podcast. I'm your host, Kenny Santucci, and as always, we are sponsored by Celsius. So grab yourself a can and live fit. Today's guest, you guys might have seen him on the cocaine quarterback documentary that you could watch right now on Amazon, and if you have Prime, well, hey, it's free.
Um, but he's in the, uh. Space, the fitness space now. And he's got an incredible product that I tried at my friend's gym down in Miami and I was like, dude, this is shit is great. I need more of it. You have to go check out California Ice Protein, which is an incredible product. Before we get into the, uh, the protein side of things, tell us, you get wrapped up with the, the cartels.
Yeah. You're a young guy. This is what, about 10 years ago? Yep. Um, take us through the story. You know, it all started with, uh, illegal sports betting. I was a bookie and, uh, I started booking bets right outta college for some of my former football players that go to the NFL and, you know, world Series closers.
And, you know, life's good. I'm, I'm taking bets and I, I got Paris Hilton as a client, Mike Tyson. And how'd that happen? It, it, it just, it just happened. The recession hit right and I lost my job. And, uh, if you'll see in the, the documentary, the docuseries that. I'm pretty resilient. You know, I get cut from the volleyball team.
I make the national Championship football team win two national championships. I lose my job right outta college, two years in 'cause of the Asha Hanson. What do I do? I, I figure out a way to get into the bookmaking business and, uh, I use my network, my, my Rolodex at USC to expand this, this, this sports betting operation.
Yeah, but no, you think about it, it's now legal. You're seeing how much, I mean, even all these TikTok kids, they're all like, yo, I'm gonna place this bet. Sports betting is everywhere now. Yeah. Like there's trillions of dollars being made in betting. How do you rewind the tape and say, Hey man, I, why was I even getting in trouble for this now?
Because it's legal everywhere. Yeah. It's a tough pill to swallow. I remember sitting in federal prison watching in 2018. I'm watching sports betting in draftings. I'm watching ESPN and as a. A sports line minus three raiders over under 47. I'm like this, that, that was taboo before I got arrested. Which is crazy because you, you look at marijuana, you look at alcohol, you look at sports betting.
We've demonized it for so long and now it's okay. And like anybody who is serving time for that shit, they should have let him out. Yeah. I mean, we have a mutual friend. Yes. Right. And then he should, he should get a pardon? He should get a pardon. No doubt he got in trouble for something that now is legal in 38 states.
Yeah. It's a bummer. I feel bad because I had so many friends that got wrapped up in this mess and now they're like, well, what the fuck man? It's legal. Yeah. And they're still dealing with it, which is crazy. Yeah. Like how do you rewind the tape back? I mean, there were so many people as soon as they made marijuana legal, like I had a buddy of mine who was in trouble.
'cause he got caught with marijuana obviously enough to distribute. Yeah. But at the same time, it's like, who gives a shit at this point, you know? Yeah. They should let everybody out. And if, if you got charged with that, you know what, guess what? Let's, let's switch it and take that away. So my biggest fear in life is going to prison.
I'd rather get my ass kicked. I'd rather lose every dime I have. Day one, you're walking in, what the fuck was going through your head? Like a deer in the headlights, right? Some surfer kid from Redondo Beach with a comb over coming in and, and I got Mexican mafia there. Arian brothers fucking. Black Crips and Bloods.
I'm like, holy shit, what have I gotten myself into? That's in federal prison. Yes. Everybody always says federal prison's like easier. There's nothing easy, Kristen. I don't, yeah, maybe if you go to one of those camps, but I never got to go to a camp. They started me at the United States Penitentiary of Lompoc, and now you're in with everybody.
Everybody. Most 70% of the prison, um, population that I was in were lifers never getting out. So they got nothing, nothing, nothing to look for. Nothing to look forward to and nothing to lose. Right. And, and, and for them, stabbing someone is easy 'cause they know they're not getting a shit. Doesn't matter. So you walk in there, it's, you know, you, I, I think they do such a good job in certain movies where it's like, you're walking, you're like hearing people screaming and all this shit, and you're like, I, what was that first night like?
No. You just hear, I mean, you hear the worst things you hear, you hears guys getting beat up. You hear guys getting raped, right. You hear. Guard's keys and, and the fear of that, that key, you hear that key rattling and you know the cops are coming and now I still have to this day PTSD, from when I hear keys, I'm thinking the guards are coming, right?
And the guards are doing their every half an hour from fucking 10:00 PM till 6:00 AM They're, they're walking and checking your cell, make sure you're still breathing. And all you hear is those cops keys every half an hour on the hour. You know, for eight hours. So for the rest of my life, I, I fucking hear keys and I'm like, oh God, the cops are covering up.
Yeah. So. I mean, what was the, what was one of the fucking scariest things I had to deal with in there? Like, you go out on the yard, right? You always see this like either in the cafeteria or the yard. You always see some shit happening. Yeah. You listen, you, you do see stuff happen and, uh, you, you know some something's gonna happen when you can hear literally a pin drop.
Yeah. Because it's, you just feel it in the air, like something's about to happen. You gotta spite You say you don't know what it is, but you know something's gonna happen and you just sit back. And if it's not your race, you don't do anything. Stay the fuck outta the way. But if it's your race, you gotta jump, you know?
And, and me, it was difficult because you gotta marry. I was married to a Mexican, I worked for one of the largest Mexican cartels in the world. So you had, so I, I, I was hectically able to run with them if I wanted to, because I was married to a Mexican, I could have run under the, the PIs, which is what the cartel's under.
But since my skin's white and I'm white, I have to fall under the, the whites, which is, you know, at the top of the food chain is the Arian brothers. For me, it was difficult because I've been playing sports my whole life with blacks, Mexicans, and now all of a sudden I have to pick who I hang out with because prison politics, you know, we're the minority now.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So for me it was difficult. Did you have, were you I had no choice. Yeah. I was, I was, say I was in an Ian brother, but I was considered an independent white boy. Yeah. And, and we fall under the white car and if there's something that goes on with the whites, guess what? We all jump. Um, fortunate for me.
You know, I, I, the whites weren't any, in any riots during the, the prisons I was at, but, you know, many riots with the blacks, the Mexicans, no. She stabbings with the Mexican mafia. Yeah. There's saw murders, prisons, no joke. But yeah. So how, how many years did you I did nine years behind the fence in a year outside, uh, for pro, uh, what they call it, halfway house.
I mean, you seem like a good guy, like. How do you get wrapped up in this? Like how, like getting involved with the cortel, you know, you, you're on the run basically for a while with Yeah, I was, it was, I was running from the feds for many years. I would just say ambition, right? As this kid coming from this, this blue collar family.
Yeah, yeah. And going to USC and seeing all this wealth like you're at hip or you're a successful kid. Yeah, I was, I was successful, don't get me wrong, like if I would've just stuck with the sports betting, I probably would've been the CEO of draftings. No doubt. People tell me to this day. If you would've just stuck with that.
Yeah. But being so ambitious, I wanted to grow this sports betting business internationally, and as soon as I started taking bets internationally, unbeknownst to me, I started taking bets from the cartel. I didn't care the customers were paying me. They're just a customer like you. You pay me great, I pay you.
It's business 1 0 1, right? Mm-hmm. So for me, it, it wasn't anything big. Like I didn't know that they were the cartel, you know? I was just taking their money and I was paying 'em when they won. Mm-hmm. Uh, you know, as soon as they reached out saying, Hey, we like the way you do business. Can, can we exchange favors?
I said, yeah, whatever you need, you know, this was a VIP customer. I treated him like a whale from Vegas. And, uh, it started small. It started for a little money laundering. You know, I drop off a hundred grand, he pay me 110, so I was making 10% every time I did something for him. How much cash did you have on you where you're like, fuck, I'm me, I'm, I'm doing pretty well right now.
When I was sitting in Australia in my studio apartment, I had $10 million. I had millions in the cabinets of the kitchen. I had it in the dishwasher, I had it in the microwave. I had it in the freezer. I had it in the attic. And I was sitting on my bed and I was like, fuck, I have nowhere else to put the money.
And I had it underneath my bed. And I would literally sit there and popping Xanax and fucking taking GHP and nothing would put me to sleep. 'cause I was so fucking nervous. You, you had to be paranoid. Of course you're paranoid. Well you're, it's almost like the paranoia of like anybody. Who knows anything about me could break in right now, kill me and take all this shit.
Yeah, you, you have to be a ghost, right? Why were you in Australia? Because that's where the product goes for a hundred thousand dollars a kilo. So the cartel flew me out there. They said, Hey, we're gonna have you do the same thing you're doing in the us but you're gonna make a million dollars a day. How would you like that?
I'm like, fuck. I'm 26 years old. Kenny, what are you gonna shoot? You're gonna pay the fucking million dollars a day. You're gonna figure it out. Well, I think that's what's so captivating about your story. I, I watched the trailer stuff and I haven't gotten a chance to watch the whole thing, but. You put yourself in that, your shoes, you're like, I'm a young guy.
I may never get an opportunity like this ever again. Like this is a ton of money that could set you. And you always think about it, like I watch movies like Goodfellas, which is like one of my favorites. You watch all these movies, you watch Blow. Yeah. Right? And you're like, all right, man, if you just make your money and get out, that's the goal.
Right? Right. You look at the risk versus the reward. And my dad was a construction worker. He's never seen that kind of money in his life. Yeah. He worked 33 years as a hardworking man, and he's probably never seen what I saw in, in two days. Right? Mm-hmm. And for me, I was just thinking, you know what? I don't wanna be that nine to five guy swinging a hammer for the rest of my life.
Let me get ahead. I'll take that money and, and I'll, I'll invest in legal opportunities. You know, I was big in the real estate space. I would, I was a builder in the South Bay. Mm-hmm. And I enjoyed that and that was my goal was to, to make that quick cash and, and get it back to the US and, and, and go legit and ha and, and it, it fucked up, man.
I had, I had someone fuck it up, man. Yeah. I had, I had literally someone that worked for my operation that was laundering the money through the casinos shit. He laundered 1.5 million successfully, and then he went to go play another 2.5 and he lost it. And the same day he lost the 2.5 million. We lost 700,000 when my runners got picked off.
So we lost $3.2 million of the cartel's money in less than 24 hours. Shit. And uh, I said, fuck, what am I gonna do now? Do I run from 'em? And just the whole, the rest of my life I'm looking over my shoulders or do I go face the music? And that's what I did. I just see in the documentary, I literally had to go to Mexico and meet the boss of all bosses.
And I sat down with this dude and I said, listen, I lost your money. What do you want me to do? And he says, there's two things we can do. I either kill you. He said, in Spanish Plata or promo, which means you get the lead of the bullet or you, you pay me the money. I said, fuck course, I'm gonna pay you the money.
He goes, okay, you don't owe me 3.2 million anymore. You now owe me four. I'm charging interest and you work for this cartel. And I was like, fuck. And hey, fuck do you get, like, it's gotta be going through your head. It's like, all right, how do I get this And go, listen, I was happy I was alive, right? I was like, okay, I'm not gonna get killed.
And I tell people, man, that that was the scariest day of my life, no doubt. Sitting in front of six saris with fucking AK 40 sevens. And the boss, I'll never say his name, but he was shit right there. And I was like, this is it, man. They're gonna fucking kill me. Well, flying over there, you, it's gotta be in the back of your head.
Yeah, I was, I was going in that meeting, I was going in that meeting, I left, I remember I wrote a note to my wife saying, Hey, if, if I die, this is where I'm at. I put it in my sock drawer in case I didn't come back. She at least know. Yeah. And I was like, then I got to Mexico. I was like, okay, I'm coming in here and I know I'm gonna get killed.
At least I know I'm gonna get killed. Like, fucking kill me in my face. Yeah. Yeah. I'd rather have it. Yeah. I'd rather face the music than like look over my shoulder. Yeah. My whole life. Yeah. So now. You get involved with them, you're, you're, you're doing, they gimme an ultimatum, Kenny, they say, you, you fucked up.
Yeah. And now to make it up, you gotta figure out how you're gonna get cocaine into Australia, the hardest place in the world. And we're not using our routes. We're gonna give you our product and you have to figure out how to get it there. So how the fuck do you figure that out? I got creative. I, I started putting it in, literally taking the kilos, putting 'em in bathtubs, taking 150 proof Everclear.
The pur of the pure alcohol, and I would put 10 kilos in a bathtub. I would dump this Everclear. I would take an ore, like an ora you'd use for a standup paddleboard. Okay. And I would break it down. I'm literally liquefying this cocaine, and I would dump it back into the wine bottles, the dark wine bottles.
And I'd reor it. I'd melt this wax, this red wax to go on top of the wine, so it looks like a brand new wine bottle. I put it back in the case, I go have my runner take it to Napa Valley and he ships the wine from Napa Valley to Australia. Jesus. My, my people, my people in Napa Valley are like, what the fuck's going on?
They're like, don't worry about it. Necessity is the mother of invention. Holy fuck you. I mean, did somebody help you come up with Oh, I, I do. How long after like that meeting did you start doing this? No, I, he gave me two years. He says, you're hot than fish grease. He said, this fucking guy that lost the money, he's already talking to the FBI and who's right.
He was, he was scared for his life, so he went to the feds. The cartel boss says, Hey, two years, you're not doing anything with drugs. Run your legal gambling operation. He says, do not touch drugs. For two years, I took off and I was like, brainstorming. How old of a guy is this guy? He, at the time, he must have been, I was 26, so he was probably like 40.
Okay. And now he is shit. He is, he's up there. Yeah. And he, he's on the run still. But listen. When I had that meaning my, my, my wheels were turning like, okay, how the fuck am I gonna figure this out? Right? And listen, I, I did the, the wine and then that got expensive 'cause the guys were charging in Australia a lot of money to bring it back to brick form.
So I then I had to reach out to my kids from USC that had to import export business of chocolates. And I started literally putting, hiding them in between chocolate bars and stacking pallets of chocolate and sending pallets to Australia. Of chocolate. Oh. And the, the fucking customs would look and see if there's anything in there.
And I had 'em so hidden they couldn't find them. Fuck yeah, I got creative. But you, you get creative when your, your back's against the wall, right? It's anything in life. You have no, well, you have no choice. So now how long does this go on for before you get mad? This goes on for literally two and a half years.
Um, the feds were watching me since 2000. 12 in the beginning. So it went on for like four and a half years of, of them watching me. Oh shit. And they watch, they watch. I, I, I would literally look at discovery when I was sitting in my prison cell and they're like watching my wife and I go have coffee. They watch every little thing.
Isn't it incredible? You watch what happens in this country all the time. Money. Billions of dollars goes missing. There's so much federal corruption and you're like, but they're watching me sell fucking cocaine. They're watching me wasting. It's such bullshit. 'cause you know why, like. Like they, they want that little, uh, feather in the cap, right?
And, and when they take me down, they, they able to put my name into it. Jeremy Shockey's name, Reggie Bush, all these NFL players that were my buddies and yeah. Yeah. And subpoena them and put them on the, the cover, you know, they got a guy on my indictment that won three Super Bowls, Dar LeBel. They love that, that makes 'em look like they took down these, these bad guys, right?
Yeah. And, uh, it's fucked. They put it in Rolling Stones and Vice and Times Magazine and Forbes and all these articles are out, and, and FB i's like, yeah, we did that. Right? Yeah. And now it, it makes it, it legitimizes their jobs. Yeah. So you're in prison. I couldn't imagine what that feeling is like when you start.
Fucking rounding me creating California ice protein. Fuck, not, not for a while. It took me a while to figure out that, I'll tell you why it took me so long. It says in prison, like I'm, I'm about routine, right? I'm up at five in the morning drinking my coffee at, in, in prison. In prison every morning. Where'd you get coffee, dude?
You get instant coffee and you don't have hot water in prison. You get the hot water from the sink, so it's lukewarm. Okay? So you get this instant coffee, you pour it in your cup, you, you heat up, you, you're in the two man cell, so you heat up that. That sink by flushing the toilet and it, it starts circulating the hot water.
Yeah. And then you, you literally use your, your, it's lukewarm and you just put a little in there and you just chug it. Right? It's like a shot of espresso and that gets you going, you know? And then after like a half an hour of meditation, my coffee finally kicks in and then I, I'm literally train my mind to.
To take it out of prison. Right. I'm, I'm literally doing pull-ups off my bunk bed. I'm doing dips off the toilet. Mm-hmm. I'm doing inverted pushups. How many, how many reps? How many? See I'm going for hours. Yeah, right. Like, is what are you doing? You have nothing else. Yeah. And, and I, I tell people, well, well fuck friends, and you were in prison.
Nah, no, no, I wasn't in prison. My body was in prison, but my mind was on the street. 'cause when I was doing these dips like this, guess where I was? I was at Equinox. Yeah. Right. That's how my mind worked when I was having that, that that protein shake that we're gonna get into right now. Mm-hmm. I wasn't in prison, I was at the earth bar.
Right. Yeah. Like, like that's how I put my mind for sure. When I'm having that top Roman soup with fucking macro in it. I was at Mr. Chows, right? Like, and that's how I trained myself. That's how you, you have, because I'm gonna go insane. So who's your, who's the guy in the cell with you? I mean, it varies.
Depends where you're at. You different prisons. You, you try to find someone that you're, you're compatible with, right? Yeah. Well, who, who moves you around? The shock collars. Yeah. Yeah. Like, I mean, I've been in, in prison cells with Nazi low riders, which is a prison gang. I've been in Mexican laas. I mean, it just depends.
Obviously we can't sell up with blacks, but we're allowed to sell up with Mexicans. 'cause Mexican you get to pick Oh, so you get to pick who you, depends where you're at. Oh, shit. But usually once you get to federal prison, they separate it. So it's like you, you're with your, your race. And isn't all crazy though that like.
The criminal justice system goes along with this. Right? Because they should be the ones being like, all right, you're in a cell with Yeah, yeah. No, no. They, they don't allow it. The shot caller says, Hey, you don't police us. We, we run our own car. That's how they tell. They tell 'em, trust me, the guards are scared of the inmates.
I couldn't imagine. Yeah. They're scared because every day you're going to the fucking gates of hell with these. Yeah. You're, you're not going to the cops and say, Hey, I need to get moved. No. You deal with inmates. Oh, shit. And they run everything. Everything, yeah. Shot callers from, so now if you want it like, because you always see these stories about guys who are like, oh, they lived a pretty good life in prison.
They get all this stuff. No, there's nothing that we get. Everyone gets the same amount, $300 a month. That's all you can spend. Okay. And that's it. We all have the same limits. Whether you wanna buy seven mackerels, seven tuna, or seven protein shakes, those are your limits. There's nothing you can say, Hey, throw me a A Zoom.
Zoom. And wham wa on top of that. And it is not like you get any extra benefits. Everyone's the same. We all wear the same khakis, we all wear the same grays when we work out, like everything's the same. And now, how often do you get out to the yard to like work out and shoot? It depends. You know, most places it's like one hour a day.
Oh, so you Yeah, you do get it. Yeah. It just depends what yard you're at. Yeah. So you're getting up at 5:00 AM what are you doing all day? Like I said, from working, I, I would literally, I went back to school. I got my master's degree. I'm probably the only person in, in, so you get outta the cell for that. You don't, you, you're in your cell and you only get outta your cell when you're doing tests.
Like if I have to go test. For like a, a midterm or a final exam. Mm-hmm. They take you out and then you have a, a, a cus like a basically a correctional officer that's works in the library and they proctor you. So the whole time you're taking your test, they're watching you to make sure you're not cheating.
So how many, how many hours a day are you in the cell? Um, just depends what prison. Most, most prisons you're in at, like, you know, at least 20 hours. Jesus. Yeah. So when you see like interactions with other guys and stuff, I mean, that's only like the one hour Yeah. When we get to go to the yard, you know, just, yeah, it depends.
But some prisons, don't get me wrong, some prisons, like the, the last prison I went to in, in Colorado was awesome. You know, we got like four hours of the yard time a day. So we'd go out two in the morning and two at night. Do you think there is any reform. Like do, do, did you see a lot of guys like turn their lives off?
Not see any I You, but you do hear stories about guys who get out and they're like, you know, I'm just fucking happy to be out. I'm gonna change my life. I'm gonna turn shit around. And then you see other guys who are like in and out. I think 90% go back. I think there's a percentage. I think it's either 85 or 90% Go back.
Yeah. You know why they go back? 'cause they're so used to that institutionalized. They get their three meals a day, they got a place to lay their head, they don't have to worry about rent. Mm-hmm. These guys get in that mindset like, Hey, this is ease, this is better. This is better than the street. I think most humans, by nature, I think we love routine.
We, we want to be told what to do, where to do it, how to do it. That's why everybody gets fucking manipulated so easily. Yeah, because you're like, oh, if somebody else is making all different mind decisions, I don't have to think that's what they think. I, I like structure too, but I, I don't like structure in the prison.
No, I can imagine. It's gotta be like one of those things where you're like, I never want go back. So now a couple years go by, you start just seven years go by. And I was like so tired, Kenny, of eating these mackerel every day. I'd eat like four mackerel a day between mackerel and tuna and it's just fish, right?
And that's the only protein you get. That's all I get. And there's not chicken breasts, there's none of that shit. I'm like, man, I'm so tired of eating this shit. You know, I gotta figure out something. Then I realized that they sold these protein shakes. They let you buy one a day, seven a week you could buy.
And they were decent tasting, you know, not, probably not the best protein, but listen, for a dollar 50 I would buy 'em. Mm-hmm. And uh, I started taking my peanut butter jars. Once they're all empty, I'd clean 'em out and I'd take my protein shake, I'd take a milk from the. From the kitchen. You get one bag of milk every day.
A bag. A bag. It's a bag. It's not a carton, it's a bag. Yeah. So I, I, I would literally take that bag out, I'd sneak it in my, my khakis and I'd sneak it out. 'cause you're not allowed, you're supposed to finish your milk in the chow hall. Oh, shit. So I, I would sneak mine out and then I would get my other buddies to sneak theirs out.
So we'd have source of protein and uh, I would've sneak it out and I'd put it in my peanut butter jar. And then I would put my protein shake, and then I'd slice pieces of banana. And then I would heat up the peanut butter and I'd drizzle it in there. And I'd literally make that shake. Like you would make it with your magic bullet, right?
Sure. And, uh, in, in prison we don't have refrigerators obviously, so we have to use ice. And we had these mop buckets in our room and we used that as our refrigeration. We'd put these mop buckets in our room with a plastic bag covering it. Mm-hmm. We'd drop the ice in there and we put our protein shakes in there.
Some guys put their soda pops in there. I put my macro in there, so it's cold when I eat it. And uh, one day I was like. Cell comes back and he says, Hey, cell. I said, what? He said, we got a problem. I said, what? He says, the ice, the ice machine's out. I said, what do you mean it's out? He's like, we're outta ice.
I said, fuck, we got ice in there. He goes, we, we only got two inches. I'm like, fuck, what are gonna do? Like I love my cold protein shake, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. He says, don't worry. He goes, oh, we're, we'll throw some salt on it. And he took some salt and he threw some salt and he says That would keep it cold.
Really? Well, I didn't know. So I go, I work out. Four hours later, I come back. And I go to grab my protein shake. And Kenny, it's fucking rock hard. I said, Hey man, what the fuck? And he looked at me like, what are you complaining for? I said, fuck, what am I gonna do now? I was, I opened it. You can't drink it.
He's like, just eat it. And that's when the light bulb went off. I started eating it. I was like, holy shit, this is protein ice cream. And I was like, oh, I think I'm onto something. Yeah. And I, I was like, you know what? Let me see if the fellas like it. So I made another batch for my workout crew. Mm-hmm. I come out to the yard the next day.
All like, holy shit Owen, you should sell this. I'm like, who the fuck's gonna buy protein ice cream? Right? But in prison no one has in, no one has ice cream at prison. Right? So I'm like, okay, I'm gonna throw out some fucking price that I don't want people to buy it 'cause I don't wanna have to make it right.
It is a lot of work. It took four hours. I said, you know what, 15 bucks we're, we're gonna call it like a air one price, right? You know, you go to Air One and it's $15 for a fucking ice cream. I said, $15 a jar. Keep in mind, this jar may cost me like a buck 15 to make, right? Mm-hmm. So I'm like, fuck a thousand percent markup, just like the kilos I was selling in Australia.
So I was like 15 bucks. Dude. The next day pre-sold, sold like 14 of 'em, no share. I was like, oh fuck. We're onto something, right? Then I was like, okay, now what am I gonna do? I can't. I don't have enough mop buckets. So I started using like all my neighbors, I said, Hey, I'm gonna pay you a dollar a shake.
Profit, you can do seven in your mop bucket. So that's $7. You gotta keep in mind, the average salary in prison is like 50 cents a day. Yeah, yeah. So now I'm making them $7 a day, right? And they're like, what? All we have to do is shake ice. Like, so I got like the whole tier, so the point making my ice was salt.
Salt. And then the way we'd get the salt, because I was in Colorado, they had this stuff called rock salt that you put on the sidewalks. So I, I, I made a deal with the, the orderly that had the rock salt. And the rock salt was ma main mainly for maintenance. And I made a deal where I'd pay him $80 a month.
I didn't know. You can't eat that. You can't eat it. You can only use it to shake the ice. It melts all the ice and gets it cold. Okay, so your, your peanut butter jar has a plastic cover so the salt doesn't get in there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So then you open it up and you take the plastic off when everything's good, you don't have any salt in there.
And that was my hustle. Come Super Bowl, sunny. 50 orders of this ice cream. I made more money that day than both the correctional officers working. And people were like, dude, you're making fucking legitimate cash in here. I said, this ain't money. So I get outta prison. Fast forward, I'm in the halfway house, like, man, I got a convicted felon.
Now I'm sitting in my bunk bed, still in the halfway house, 20 bunk beds and guys around me, and they're just all like thinking, what are they gonna do for work? And I'm like, man, what am I gonna do? You know, I just got my master's degree and I can't even use it. And uh, I said, you know what? I think I'm gonna start a ice cream business.
A protein ice cream business. And this is what, 2018? No, this is 2024. When I got to the halfway house. Oh shit. So this is, this ice cream literally just came out September of 2025 was my first sale. Okay. So it's been out seven, 300 gyms in stores already. Oh yeah. It's crazy, so I'm, I'm having fun with it.
Yeah. I, I, I tell people, it's kind of like the same feeling I had when I would ship a pallet of chocolate to Australia and, and it would arrive and it would clear customs. Yeah. I got that same rush when I shipped two pallets to New York and it arrived Unmelted. Right. You're like, fuck. Yeah. It made it right.
And it's the same feeling. Yeah, of course. My margins are a little less, but it's, it's, it's the same, it's the same rush. You know what I mean? Like. People don't, don't understand that actually shipping frozen product is 10 times harder than shipping cocaine. Yeah, of course. Yeah. You know, it's a lot harder.
Well, refrigerated trucks, er it is not even refrigeration. It's minus 20. This thing has to be the whole time. No shit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they come harder. A little bit harder. Harder, yeah. You let 'em fall out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it's been a fun run. Um, my goal is to like four or five years exit, sell it to like a Nestle or, you know, hug anu.
Mm-hmm. I, I feel like. Just listening to your story, you're just very strategic. You're a very smart guy. Yeah. It's a game of chess, right? Yeah. They're playing. No, but like a lot of the average person's a fucking moron. Yeah. Right? Like you think about it, like how easily manipulated people are by like anything, entertainment and the news, and it just seems like you're just on your own path and you're kind of carving your own way.
Yeah. You know, being in that halfway house, I wanna rewind back to that a little bit. You gotta be thinking, you're like, all right, no one's gonna listen. Like it's gotta be because you, you just put me in that position where if I was sitting in a halfway house just coming outta jail and you're sitting with a bunch of other people who are like, fuck, no one's gonna hire me.
I'm gonna have to get some bullshit job. Yeah. You're like, Hey, I'm gonna start this company. Yeah. So. Take us through that because I mean, there are so many people who create products where they have, they have backing, right? They probably have some, uh, you know, some good connections and they still fail.
Yeah. Um, no, you're doing a pretty good job at this right now. Like I, I just saw you at the LA Fit Expo. Yeah. You know, I'm sure. Are you gonna go to the Arnold and stuff? Yeah, they, I just got a call actually. Funny. They want me at the Arnold. I said maybe I'll bring a backpack full of ice cream. 'cause I don't feel like doing the booth again.
Yeah, that's a lot of work. Oh it is. And you had a ton of people Dude, I had so many people. Yeah. I think I had 15, 15 employees working at, but I, your. Honestly, the branding for the, the product is sick. Yeah. I love it. I love, I love the look of it. It's got that like Miami, yeah. Miami, California. Yeah. My business partners are from Miami and I'm from California.
Yeah, we wanted to put a little twist, but, so let's, let's rewind. You know, you're in this halfway house, you got 20 bunk beds, so 40 guys in there, it's like the size of this room and, and they're all becoming truck drivers. I'm not gonna become a truck driver, right? I am like, okay, fuck that. Like, sign your old, I'm not gonna do that.
I was like, okay, let me put my thinking cap on it. What am I gonna do? I'm gonna go to every ice cream manufacturer in California and I'm gonna ask them like, Hey, would you, would you be willing to Copack and, and come up with this recipe for me? And where are you in California? Uh, I'm staying in Van Nuys at the halfway house at this time.
Time. Okay, so it's in Southern California. Yeah. Yeah. I know. I. I literally went to, I tell, let's see, I went to eight manufacturers and they all turned me down. They're like, oh, that's too small of an order. We don't, we don't want to have help. Like, listen, I don't have, I had $10,000 to my name when I got out all from my ice cream sales inside prison.
No shit. Yeah. So I was like, fuck, no one's gonna accept. So finally I had the book, the California kid that I wrote in prison and, and Amazon, you know, it's an Amazon top seller. So I was like, okay. The last guy I went to, I just slapped the book. I said, listen, you could tell me no everyone else is, but once you read that book, just please read it for me.
I said, I want you to be my co-packer. I want you to manufacture for me. And he is like, eh, I don't think so. And the next day he called me, he says, I read your book. He said, you paid the book Cartel back $4 million. He goes, you're a fucking hustler. He goes, I want a co-pack for you and I'm gonna do all your r and d for you for free.
No shit. Yeah, he did over 150. You still, you still? He's my co-packer. No shit. He, uh, he says, I'm gonna do all of it. He says, you are a fucking hustler. And he goes, I wanna be part of this. Yeah. I mean, we, we spent literally, I was in the halfway house for 20 months. We spent probably 16 months literally making this formula that I started in that six by eight prison cell.
It consisted of Greek yogurt and, you know, protein powder and monk fruit. And I mean, we played with so many different sweeteners and I wanted to be able to say it's all natural. Right? Natural ingredients. Monk fruit is a sweetener. So now I can say no added sugar, the only sugar's coming from the dairy.
Yeah, it's natural. Um, the strawberries have obviously sugar, but it's natural. I mean, it's not like I can not like I'm throwing anything in there. No. What's so interesting to me is how you've. Managed to bounce back so many times and there are so many people who'd be crippled by one of the things that happened to you.
Where's your family during this time? Like, because you seem like a, you know, you're married like your wife. You're right. My wife left me while I was in federal prison, but that was, I told her, I said, listen, you, this was before I knew I was getting out. Yeah. I was supposed to be away for 21 years in the federal prison system.
Then I was supposed to get extradited into a life sentence in Australia. All the viewers watched the docuseries so they see how it got out. 'cause it was, it was a game of chess, man. It was a game of chess for sure. Yeah. Um, so I told my wife at the time, I said, listen, I'm gone for 21 years. I said, by the time I get out, it's 2078.
That's the year. I said, you know, you're at the time, she was 10 years older than me. I said, you know what? You're not gonna even be around. I said, go, go. Like, leave. Yeah. And I told her I remember it was a hard day for us. Yeah. And, uh, she cried. She goes, you want me to leave? I said, I don't want you. I said, you have to.
You're not gonna just sit here while I'm in here. How am I gonna support you? That's the man's job to support a woman. I said, go, I like, and it was hard. Right. But she today, she, she's still, she's still my friend. No, can, she's, I would consider, you know, top five friends for sure. But yeah, she's back in Mexico and, uh.
It is what it is. My father stayed by my side. He was there when I, you'll see in the documentary. He was there to gimme a hug. When I got outta that prison, the doc, the whole team from Wahlberg's team Mark, Wahlberg's team was there filming it. Yeah. And I got to see my pop six. And, uh, my mom, you know, she's there, we speak once a month and you know, they're all rooting for me.
Yeah. And, uh, it's good to have him on my side. How important is it to be almost your biggest fan, right? Like, because. Playing quarterback is in an easy position, right? You playing? Yeah. I I was a high end. So the re everyone says, well, he's a quarterback. Let me tell you, everyone thinks I'm a quarterback.
'cause the Amazon called it cocaine quarterback. Yeah. Yeah. But I was actually the quarterback for the cartel. Okay. The signal call. I actually walk onto the USC football team when I was a backup tight end. Okay. But Amazon says, Hey, this is gonna sell a lot better as cocaine quarterback. 'cause he was the signal caller for the car.
Shut out the guy that calls the shots. So that's why it is. But I was a tight end. Yeah. Yeah. But I mean. Again, a pretty hard position to play. Yeah. You know, you can't be an idiot and be a tight end. No. Like, I think it's, and you're, you're moving and shaking when you're, when you have a position like that, um, you know, take us like you start at a young age playing sports.
Yeah. I, I went, I went to USC on a volleyball scholarship. Yeah. And I, I, I was all American outta high school fab. Fabulous. 50, which is top 50 players in the United States. And, and I, I remember. The coach my sophomore year called me in and says, Hey, we got, we got a red shirt. You're like, what do you mean red shirt?
Red shirt means like, they're gonna cut you. You take a year off. I'm like, what do you mean? He's like, is that how you knew Danny from for volleyball? Yeah. And I said, man, what do you mean? I came here to play volleyball. Sorry man, you gotta work on your vertical jump and your arm strength. I'm like, oh, fuck that.
And then, uh, I'm not gonna lie, Kenny, I said, I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna just roll over and quit. Well, that's my point. Yeah. You left volleyball, you win it. Yeah. I went to the pharmacy in Mexico and I said, you know what? I'm gonna get stronger with my arm strength. I'm gonna get that vertical jump up. And I literally started taking performance enhancing drugs.
And I came back and I was just, just, it, it backfired. I swelled up 'cause I've never taken steroids. Mm-hmm. And it swelled up. I blew up and now, now the football trainings, training coaches are like, dude, who are you? Yeah. I'm like, I'm the volleyball player. They're like, no, you need to try out for the football team.
Yeah. I was like, I've never played football. I'm like, dude, you're an athlete. Try out. I was one out of 50 guys that made it. It's funny because, uh, I, I bring this guy up a lot. So I had, um. Gentleman who is a former Navy Seal come on the podcast. He also spoke at my event this year, rich Devinney, and he's got a book called Attributes.
And the whole basis around the book is like, all right, what makes a Great Navy Seal? He had to figure out like, what makes a Great Navy seal? And it's your attributes, right? It's the things that you can work on as a skill. They have to like, that person has to work on these, your attributes. So it's like patience and you know.
Having the ability to bounce back Yeah. After something goes wrong. And it's like, you're, you, you seem to be really good at that, right? You miss a volleyball team. You get a, you played football. Yeah. You're gambling, now you're working with the cartel. You're, you're in prison now. You got this. It's, you are a savage when it comes to.
Comebacks. I think it's a resilience, right? Yeah. But you're not nimble, but you can't teach people No. They have to work on it themselves. Oh yeah. Right. The fact that you, like, you put me in that jail cell where you're like, yeah, you know, I had nothing else to do. I put myself in this mindset where I'm not, where I'm actually, my body is.
Yeah. Somewhere else. You gotta trick it. Yeah. And so many times I tricked my mind. I remember going against the United States government and getting sentenced to 21 years. I tell people to understand what it's like. Go in the ring with Mike Tyson or Right. You're to get knocked down. Yeah. Yeah. And it's up to you to either give up or get up.
And I chose to get up. How'd you get, how'd you cut down on the sentence? I can't say You gotta watch the docuseries there. Oh shit. It's a, I gotta let people, I'm like, yeah, listen, you're gonna see It was, it was a mirror. I'm so bought into the brand too, because I'm like, you, you hear about somebody like this and you're like, I just wanna see this fucking guy win.
Hey, hey, that's my ice cream distributor. He's the biggest one in, in California. Dave. Dave Taylor. He says, oh. We just wanna see you come back, man. Everyone's cheering for you. Yeah, and it gives me, I have to about dude, like, just hearing the story, you're like, fuck, I wanna see this guy where, you know, you hear so many times, actually one of my clients is, uh, he was, uh, wrapped up.
He had, you know, uh, some drug issues and stuff like that and he bounced back and he now runs a massive business helping people recover. Um, my buddy Zach, and he's such an impressive guy. He's, you know, there was a point in his life where he would find himself in the gutter, you know? Yeah. With needles in his arm.
Fuck. And now it's like, here he is and he runs this multimillion dollar business, and I'm like, fuck, I wanna see this guy win. Yeah. Like, I love that. And one of not popular belief, but you know, Trump used to have some really good, uh, you know, advice on how to hire people. And he's like, I, I remember reading the book when I was a kid, and he said.
I'd rather hire the guy who's lost than the guy who always wins. At least the guy who's lost knows how to come back. Yeah. Right. And that's the most important thing. It shows you're a dog. Yeah. You could lose and come back. And I think that's super important when I'm looking for employees and different people that I want around me.
Like I want people who've lost. I want them to understand how that feels and how to come back better than they did. And you're a master at that. So the, the protein I means it's blown up, right? Yeah. So that feeling when you said, Hey, I got $10 million, I don't even know where the fuck to put it. Where are you at right now with the business you started seven months ago?
Eight months ago? We are sales. You wouldn't believe it. The, the company got evaluated last week for $10 million. Legally. Fucking legally. It's awesome. And guess who's over here? 51% Me. Right? Like, like, so I like, wow, I just fucking did that in that short period of time. Let's, my goal is like the ghost exit.
Remember what? Ghost Energy drinking? Yeah. Like, that's my goal. Let's get to the BI wanna be behind it. That's awesome. Just, I've been a millionaire. You know, I, I wanna say I've been a billionaire legally. Right? Like that. Like that's, I, dude, I listen For anybody out there, it's like, if you're listening to this, I.
I'm not bullshitting at all. I've probably eaten 10 of these bars and I've only been around them like two or three times. So like when I was down in, uh, Miami, when I was out in la like that day I took, I probably had like two or three that day. It was actually the only thing I ate that day because it was really nothing else.
It's a protein shake on a stick. Yeah. It, it, it tastes great. You got great flavors, carbs, the, the macros are perfect. Macros are perfect. It's 31 grand and you're eating, it tastes like ice cream. Yeah. Yeah. You feel like you're getting away with something? I tell people proteins never taste tasted so good.
Yeah. I eat four a day. So now what? But what's the plan like, because this. Starting a brand like this, right? Anything in the performance space is very hard. It's all about marketing and advertising, and you're doing a really good job. Like we said, you, your, your branding's on point who's kind of directing you through this and are you doing a lot of this yourself?
A lot of it's myself and then I have a. A team of marketing people that do the, the, the collaborations with the colors and, and the aesthetics and the bars. Mm-hmm. Because it all seems very consistent. Yeah. And then next, next, next, by summer we're gonna have a, a non-dairy bar. So we'll use like a clear isolate and put it in our fruit bars.
So we'll have like a mango, a watermelon, a raspberry. So they'll be all fruit bars, but they'll have, you know, 15 grams of clear protein in it. So, so people that are lactose and intolerant can eat them. So you, when we were, uh, when we were in la you told me that you got a couple new flavors. Got it. Did they drop yet?
Yeah, they're gonna drop next month. Okay. And then I have, have you released the flavors yet? No, I haven't said it yet. Okay. Yeah, but I do have an ice cream sandwich. I'm working on, like, we got mint chocolate chip, so this has kind fun for you. Yeah. This has gotta be a new, like, kind of think of, uh, you remember how Quest Bar did the, the bars and then they did the cookies and Yeah.
Yeah. The chips. I wanna do the same thing, but on the ice cream space, like, so look at, we have like Otter Pops we could do like for kids. Mm-hmm. I'm doing one of those. Fruit par you got the right guy helping out because another mutual friend Bruce Yeah. Is helping you out with a lot of this and he's, he's done a great job with everything.
Yeah. He's helping me out right now to do the legendary protein cookie. Mm-hmm. And we'll do the ice cream in the middle. So imagine like a legendary, uh, ICE's gonna do a, I'm hoping Yeah. Listen, there's great, there's a lot of people to sign off on that 'cause they had to make sure it makes sense. Yeah. But, uh, I mean, their product's amazing.
Yeah. Ron and Shannon make a hell of a product, which is, you know, Bruce's partners, they're the original founders, so, you know, it's about convincing 'em. Right. And they love the product. They carry the product in the legendary headquarters, so I think they'll, they'll bite. What was the feedback that you got at the La FedEx?
Well, because you guys were slinging. Oh yeah. I mean, they, we gave away 10,000 bars. No. Yeah. Um, fuck. We probably already signed up a hundred gyms that are already committed to freezers. That's sick. Yeah. Yeah. No, I, as soon as I tried the product, I'm like, this is gonna, it's gonna crush it. Especially in places like La, Miami.
Yes. You know, the hot places we go, Texas. I was gonna say, Austin's gonna probably be a huge spot for you guys. Dallas. Yep. Yeah. Uh, so what's now, I mean. It seems like you, you, you're bouncing back and now you're on this winning streak. What's next? I'm just gonna keep going and, uh, you know, it's some pre-development of maybe a scripted movie or a scripted series, so I'm gonna run with that if it, if the time comes, you know, we're, we're in some, some heated conversations with what's, what's next with the Walbert team.
Yeah. So who had, who had originally approached you? Mark Wahlberg's team. Yeah. And they, for the first soccer, yeah, for the docuseries. Yeah. So they have a a How do you find out about you? Oh, I was in prison. Someone came to me and visited me, said, Hey man, I want to, I wanna do something with this. I said, you how'd they, how'd they hear about your stories in Rolling Stones?
So they came, they, they, everyone's like, dude, this story's crazy. So they came to visiting me. I said, man, you could do whatever you want. I'm in prison first to 2078. Right? Like, you could have this thing. Yeah. And I said, run with it. Like I'll be in here. And I remember I started writing my book in there.
And then next thing you know, Wahlberg's director's speaking to me on the prison wall phone. I'm telling you my story for like nine months straight. 'cause you only get 15 minutes a day on the phone in prison. Geez. So every day I'm telling my parents, Hey, I'm not gonna call you this month. I'm calling the director.
So I was calling Wahlberg's director and telling 'em my story and they're just, since 2019 they started building this docuseries and it's a three part episode. If you were, if we were to meet your 16, 15-year-old self, would you have ever thought. At 40 years old witness where you be 43. I would never think at 43 years old, I would be starting over.
Yeah. That's the, the hardest pill to swallow. Yeah. Like I'm 43, I'm looking at all my friends are millionaires and I'm starting over. Yeah. I, I have a similar situation. I tell people that like, oh, what would you change? I said, man, I wouldn't change anything. 'cause we wanna be here today telling 'em this story.
Helping, helping kids that are gonna get into trouble like I did. Yeah. I wanna be able to speak to them and tell 'em, Hey, sit back. Let me tell you why. Yeah. Next, tomorrow I'm going to the detention center Crossroads in New York to talk to these kids in the prison and tell 'em, listen, you, you think this is cool?
You think you guys are tough? Well, let me tell you how it goes down. Yeah. Because I've been there. Yeah. And for me, that's the biggest message. Like, let me, if I'm in a room with a hundred kids, if I can help one of them avoid what I went through and I'm winning, one of the things that I learned from playing football and wrestling and you know, just playing sports in general, you know, it's not over until it's over.
Right. One of the things that I loved the most when I was wrestling, my coach would always talk about the last 10 seconds. He's like, the last 10 seconds are the most important. You could change the match if you're down. You could still pin it. You could always come back. I think it's so important to like really just keep playing and keep going because as soon as you give up on yourself Yeah.
Done. Like there were so many points in your life, you could have just been like, you know, I'm out. Yeah. And I felt the same way. I had a bullshit job when I was a kid and you know, most people have that job would've stayed in it. And I go, this just isn't for me. I, I need something more. I want some more.
And I feel like you're just one of these people who gets more outta life. Yeah. And the fact, the work that you're doing now, that you're going and you're talking to these kids and stuff. Giving them more hope. I mean, my whole business is built on like, hey, I wanna make sure that people are, you know, taking better care of themselves, putting themselves in the right mindset so we have more be good people around us.
I think that's like the whole idea behind Strong New York. I'm like, if I can make everybody around me win, take better care of themselves, like, then my life ultimately becomes better. Yeah. Too. 'cause you have more, more winners around you. Yep. Like who, who would you say like your inner circle is now helping you really through this?
Obviously you're family. Right. But I had a fullback that would come and visit me, one of my All American fullbacks in running backs, Lendell White and Brandon Hancock. And they would come visit me in prison and, and oh shit. And they were stuck by my side. And when I got out, they were there. When I watched the documentary, they're in it.
I'm like, okay, these are soldiers, right? They're part of Team Owen. And, and that's the biggest compliment to have these guys still with me. Yeah. Yeah. Healthy peers, right? Yeah. Well, listen, I mean. This, if this story doesn't get people inspired and fired up. I mean, I, it's incredible. I wanna, obviously my space here is a little too small, but I definitely want to get some of the bars Yeah.
In the gym. I'd love to have you guys at Strong New York this year for sure. Appreciate everything that you've done. I appreciate coming by here. Um, where could everybody find you? Where could everybody go? Watch a Yeah, watch the docuseries or my website, you know, the California kid.com. Get a book there, assign it personally, send it to you, or go on my website, California Ice Protein.
Awesome. And we send ice cream just like Amazon, straight to your door. And people don't, you know, people should realize that there are guys like you out there who just give us all a little bit of hope. It's like you could be down in the gutter and still rise to the top. Yeah. So I did it from a six by eight prison cell.
Why can't you? Yeah. Yeah. Dude, thank you so, hello. Thank you so much. No worries. Bye. I appreciate you guys. Guys as always like, share, subscribe, tell your friends about this episode and grab yourself some California ice protein.