#12: From Prison to Purpose: How to Turn Rock Bottom Into a Life of Impact and Abundance with Coss Marte

If you've ever felt like you're at rock bottom—like life has hit you hard, and you're not sure how you’ll ever rise again—this story is going to shift something in you.

This is about resilience in real time. It's about what happens when someone takes the lowest of lows and transforms it into purpose, abundance, and legacy. It's about what’s possible for you, too.

Coss Marte went from solitary confinement… to Saks Fifth Avenue. From running the streets of the Lower East Side… to building two mission-driven empires: ConBody and ConBud.

At just 19 years old, he was running a $5 million drug operation that ultimately landed him behind bars. Today, he’s doing over $7 million in legal cannabis sales—using the very industry that got him incarcerated to create jobs, rewrite narratives, and build generational change.

He founded ConBody, a prison-style fitness bootcamp that has served over 70,000 people and hired more than 100 formerly incarcerated individuals to lead the work. He’s been featured in The New York Times, Men’s Health, CNN, NBC, and over 200 major media outlets. He’s given four TED Talks, authored a book, and continues to break cycles of incarceration by helping others transform their lives too.

With ConBud, he’s flipping the cannabis industry on its head—creating opportunities for people who were once criminalized for the very thing he’s now legally succeeding in.

In this conversation, we explore the deeper layers:

• How do you keep moving forward when it all falls apart?
• Where do you find the strength when everything feels stacked against you?
• And how do you turn your hardest seasons into fuel for something revolutionary?

I feel deeply connected to this story because I was touched firsthand by the power of this mission. I brought Coss into Saks as part of a project I was leading, and that moment ended up being pivotal for both of us. Getting to know him, witnessing his growth, and watching him continue to make such a profound impact moves me, inspires me, and honestly—it just makes me want to hear more.

So without further ado, let’s get into it.

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