From the Streets to the Stove, from Cocaine to Foie Gras, Chef Jeff’s Recipe for Redemption

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What does it take to transform your life after hitting rock bottom? Chef Jeff Henderson knows firsthand. His journey from South Central LA drug dealer to award-winning chef, bestselling author, and youth mentor is a masterclass in personal reinvention and the power of redirected hustle.

Growing up in a single-parent home, Jeff absorbed entrepreneurial traits from family members who modeled hard work without formal business education. As a curious child riding the school bus through wealthy neighborhoods, he pressed his face against the window, dreaming of one day owning a beautiful home with a white picket fence. This early exposure to economic disparity planted seeds of ambition that would drive him throughout his life—though initially down a destructive path.

When crack cocaine flooded his community in the early 1980s, Jeff saw an opportunity to achieve his American Dream through illegal means. By 19, he had become a millionaire drug dealer with custom cars and a three-story house. But the law eventually caught up with him, resulting in nearly ten years in federal prison. Rather than becoming bitter, Jeff used this time to transform himself through education, reading voraciously and learning from the white-collar criminals around him. Most crucially, he discovered cooking in the prison kitchen, which became his pathway to legitimate success.

After his release, Jeff strategically worked his way up from dishwasher to executive chef in elite restaurants, eventually becoming the first Black executive chef at Caesar's Palace. His remarkable story caught media attention, leading to appearances on Oprah, a book deal, a movie deal with Will Smith, and multiple Food Network shows. Today, through The Chef Jeff Project, he mentors at-risk youth using culinary arts to teach leadership and life skills—passing forward the second chance he received.

Jeff's concept of "hustlepreneurship" perfectly encapsulates his philosophy: you don't need to change your hustle, just change your product. His story resonates because it proves that with grit, strategic thinking, and willingness to learn, anyone can transform their life regardless of their past. Ready to be inspired by the raw truth of one man's remarkable journey? Listen now.

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_02 (00:00):
Welcome to Vegas Circle Podcast with your hosts,
Pocky and Chris.
We are people who are passionateabout business, success, and
culture.
And this is our platform toshowcase the people in our city
who are making it happen.
On today's podcast, we aresitting down with somebody
that's living proof that nosetbacks are final.
His journey from rock bottom tothe national spotlight has had
him featured on Oprah, GoodMorning America, the Steve

(00:20):
Harvey show, just to name a few.
Got lots to talk with thisbrother about, man.
So let's welcome to the circle.
Award-winning chef, best-sellingauthor and entrepreneur, Chef
Jeff Henderson.
Welcome to the circle, my man.
Appreciate you.
So we've been watching, you'vebeen on our radar for a while,
man.
Okay.
I think we know a lot of thesame people, man, like Rich
Robletto.
Oh, yeah, that's my man, Rich.
Richie Rich.
Rich has been on the show,Frederick Hudson.
Yeah, he has a tech companydowntown.

(00:41):
We had Frederick on a coupleyears back and he's a good one.
Yep.
We had him on the podcast aboutthree years ago.
So you you come highlyrecommended, my man.
Highly recommended.
So let's jump right in, man.
So growing up South Central, LA,what was it like for you, man?
What was life like for youbefore you went to prison from
understanding which we're goingto get into?

SPEAKER_01 (00:58):
Yeah, well, interesting.
You know, life back in thosedays was in the 70s when I was
young.
You know, I'm 60 years old.
Actually, I'll be 61 thisSunday.
You got some good genes.
Yeah, well, you know, you know,the the prison, I always tell
people a lot of people don'trealize prison preserves you.
And we'll get into that.
So it took a lot of years off mylife.
And so growing up in LA was wasinteresting.
Came from a single-parent home.

(01:20):
Grandparents were veryinstrumental in my upbringing,
along with my sister as well.
So I came in a f I grew up in afamily of entrepreneurs.
You know, my grandfather, mygreat-grandfather was a
photographer, my father was aphotographer, and so my mother
also an entrepreneur as well.
And so growing up back in thosedays, it was like it was a

(01:40):
struggle at times.
You know, I saw the Americandream as a youngster.
You know, I was one of thoseguys who rushed to get on a
school bus every day becauseduring integration in LA, you
know, a lot of the homeboys wasbust out of the hood into the
burbs to go to school.
And so I used to wear theseglasses when I was young, and
the right lens was thick as thebottom of a Coke bottle.

(02:02):
So y'all are pretty young, soy'all probably don't remember
the thick Coke bottles back inthe days.
It's jokes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You know, once you once youfinish the soda, you can take it
back to the store and you get 20cents.
Yeah, I don't know that y'alldon't know about that one.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And so, you know, getting on thebus, I always, you know, fought
to get that seat behind theschool bus driver because it had

(02:22):
the largest window.
And so, and it didn't have theseam in the middle.
And so every day during that35-minute, 40-minute bus ride to
school, we passed throughmultimillion dollar
neighborhoods.
And so I was a kid that wasalways curious, always asked
questions, I always wanted toknow why.
And so I began to question, youknow, our circumstances.

(02:45):
How come they get to live thereand we have to live over here?
What's the difference in theprojects and apartments,
low-income housing versus livingin a beautiful home?
Yep.
And so when I saw these homes, Iwas like, I want one of them.
I want one of those for mymother.
I want the house on the hillwith the white picket fans.
So that started my childhooddream of the American dream was

(03:07):
a house.
Like growing up in a house, youknow, with a double-door
refrigerator, you know, having,you know, a garage, you know, uh
a dog running around the yard, abasketball hoop over the garage
door.
Yep.
You know, those things were kindof important for me.
You know, my parents originatedfrom New Orleans, Louisiana.
There was a big exit during thelate 50s and the early 1960s,

(03:30):
where a lot of people from NewOrleans left and went to Chicago
for the textile industry.
They went to Detroit for theautomobile.
We're both from there.

SPEAKER_02 (03:38):
I'm from Chicago.
You're from Detroit.

SPEAKER_01 (03:40):
Okay.
Yeah.
And then a lot of folks went toOakland, Longshoremans, and then
Los Angeles, where my familychose to go to because they were
able to get jobs as domesticworkers in Beverly Hills and
work for the uh LA County LAUnified School District.

SPEAKER_00 (03:56):
After you had these things, you know, what next
steps did you take, you know,after you kind of had this
burning desire, right, to moveinto entrepreneurship if you
seem with your family?
Like what was like the naturalprogression of that kind of
inherent ambition?
Well, interesting.

SPEAKER_01 (04:06):
I think I think example, you know, my
grandfather, my father, mymother uh modeled the behavior
of an entrepreneur.
You know, everyone in my housegot up early.
You know, so as a young kid, wewere up at five o'clock on
weekends in the summers.
You know, my grandmother wouldalways make coffee.
My grandfather had a janitorialservice in LA.
And so he cleaned all thewealthy Jewish delicate testants

(04:31):
and bakeries up on in WilshireDistrict.
But he also had a contract withBaskin Robbins, which used to be
called 31 Flavors.
And then another, he had a bunchof contracts.
And so all the boys had to gowork with granddaddy.
And so my grandfather used to bework as a longshoreman in New
Orleans, and he was a veryhardened man.

(04:52):
You know, he was serious aboutlife.
He never was silly, he neverclowned around.
And when he came to LA, fatherhad told me that he didn't want
to work under the bootstrap ofpeople who oppressed a lot of
black folks down in the South.
So he says, I'm goingentrepreneur.
And my grandfather started outwith an old Chevy, and he had a

(05:12):
ladder in the trunk, a squeezy,and a mop bucket.
And so his expertise wascleaning windows and changing
the ballots in fluorescentlights in businesses.
And also buffing and waxingfloors.
And so as a kid, my grandfatherhad me cleaning toilets,

(05:33):
cleaning floors, cleaningwindows.
So we saw what ambition lookedlike.
We saw grit hard work and hardwork.
Yeah.
And and grit.
And I think I think when youlook at the word, when you look
at grit that a lot of people useand really don't understand
that, is I think one of thefoundations of grit is when your

(05:54):
parent or guardian never letsyou give up.
You know, and my grandfather wasthat type if you're sick, if
you're not feeling well, you'rehurting, you still going to
work.
And that that stayed instilledin me all the way up until
today.
So my grandfather was ambition,my father was ambition, my
grandfather, my greatgrandfather had an old school

(06:14):
Polaroid, and he hustlednightclubs down in Mobile,
Alabama.
Yeah, yeah.
You know, and even though hedidn't have a good relationship
with my grandfather, it was thevisual.
So when you think about youngpeople who grow up under adverse
childhood experiences, thingsthat you see, hear, and
experiences, the long-termimpact.

(06:36):
And so my grandfather never cameto me or my father or my
great-grandfather to mygrandfather and said, Look, I'm
gonna show you how to hustle.
I'm gonna teach you theprinciples of hard work, and
here's the payoff.
They didn't have the theintellect, the capacity to put
that.
What they did was they allowedus to witness it.

(06:56):
And so we learn a lot of timeswhen you're uneducated, which
all my family never finishedschool.
My grandfather made my dadstopped working in seventh or
eighth grade because he had todeliver groceries in the in the
pharmacy in uptown New Orleans.
So he started early, you know,working as like a worker
preneur, but he always had avision to have a growing

(07:19):
business.
You know, and so my grandfather,you know, I I kind of coined the
term hustlepreneur.
Right.
And so that's the next book Igot coming out called
Hustlepreneur's ship, right?
That's for sure.
And so hustlepreneur is a spinon entrepreneur.
And so a hustlepreneur hascertain lived experiences and

(07:41):
entrepreneurial traits that helearned from experience versus
in a book or in school.
Right?

SPEAKER_02 (07:48):
So or philosophy, just teaching a philosophy.
Absolutely, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 (07:52):
And so when you know, when there's no food
growing up, you know how tocreate a meal with government
rations.
You know how to turn 15 centsinto a dollar.
And if mama don't bring foodhome, you gotta hustle.

(08:12):
So in my era versus the eratoday where these young folks
are very entitled, if we didn'thustle, we didn't eat.
Because my mama worked two jobs.
So for me, I think that thatexperience with my grandfather,
and he was tough.
And so if wax built up on thefloor and I didn't get it right,
he had these big hands, he wouldthump me in my head.
And so our bald heads back thenwere called covitus.

(08:35):
I don't know if you know thatterm.
So that's an old term, likemilitary, like dungerines where
your jeans.
So the bald head was called acovitus, and he would thump me
in the head along with my firstcousins.
You say, Boy, didn't I tell youto make sure you got that wax?
So that's where that mentaltoughness came in and respect of

(08:57):
authority that allowed me toeventually flourish.
But what my parents asentrepreneurs didn't have, they
didn't have vision.
You see, so they worked thatentrepreneurial job as if it was
a job.
So basically, they created a jobfor themselves.
So my grandfather never had thevision because he had a van, it

(09:18):
said Charles HendersonJanitorial Services.
He didn't have the vision tosay, What if I buy 25 vans and
hire 25 janitors to go out andthen let me go out and negotiate
the deals?
So they didn't have that type ofvision because they didn't have
the training for that.
And so I think that's where Idraw and inherited that

(09:39):
entrepreneurial spirit from mygrandfather.

SPEAKER_02 (09:42):
Especially because I'm looking at it right, like
writing books, motivationalspeaker, you know, chef.
You got so many things probablyfrom watching all these, you
know, people that you've seenset your foundation that hard
work, you probably have fivedifferent businesses, right,
that you that you've actuallydeveloped.

SPEAKER_01 (09:57):
Yes, but you know what's interesting about it is
that so my my philosophy is thatyou know you you focus on your
strengths and you manage aroundyour weaknesses.
Manage around your weaknesses.
Okay.
So meaning you guys run VegasCircle Podcasts as talent here,
but then he does the cameras.
That's not your lane.

(10:18):
Correct.
Right?
And so when you focus on yourgift, the one thing that you do
extremely well at a very highlevel is the gift.
See, a lot of times we investand go to college because what
we're passionate about.
I love the golf, but I suck atgolf.
That's not my own.

SPEAKER_02 (10:36):
You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01 (10:37):
And so so your gift is various things.
Sometimes a gift is not a skillset.
Your gift that can createrevenue streams could be your
charisma, it could be yourbeauty, it could be a physique.

SPEAKER_02 (10:54):
Especially now with social media.

SPEAKER_01 (10:55):
Jeez, people gotta seriously.
You know, your talk game, right?
Your gift to gab, yourcommunication skills.
That's true.
And so when I was young, I hadseveral little businesses.
So my grandfather my father hada lawnmower.
Once we eventually moved out ofSouth Trent, LA, we moved to
Long Beach.
I got kicked out of LA UnifiedSchool District.
And so I wound up going toschool in Long Beach, North Long

(11:17):
Beach.
So my father had a lawnmower.
And so I used to take hislawnmower when he left to work,
and I cut grass before I went toschool.
So I used to charge like$25 forthe back,$15 for the front.
So I always kept a littlechange.
And I know you were getting ittoo much.
Yeah, every morning before Iwent to school, I had to have
paper.

SPEAKER_02 (11:33):
Because everybody hated cut grass basically.

SPEAKER_01 (11:36):
No, I I just I just was taught that early, right?
And then these guys used to comein our neighborhood in these
white vans, these white dudes,right?
And so we used to go sellgourmet chocolate candy up in
San Pedro and Rancho andPalisades.
And so I used to sell out all mygourmet chocolate every night,
and we would win cash prizes andtrips to like Knotts Bray Farm

(11:59):
in Disneyland.
Oh, wow.
And then eventually I wound upwhen I wound up going to San
Diego, we lived there twice.
I had a newspaper route.
I had the number one newspaperroute in Linda Vista.

SPEAKER_03 (12:09):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (12:09):
So I would, I, I, I, money was, you know, money was I
I had to have money because whydo they why all the successful
entrepreneurs had newspaperroutes, man?

SPEAKER_02 (12:20):
You ever noticed that like back in the day?
All the successfulentrepreneurs, you would you do
the history?
Yes.
A lot of them had newspaperroutes.

SPEAKER_01 (12:27):
Yeah, and that was like way before social media.
I mean, you you got all yourinformation from learned the how
to hustle, talk, communicate,sell the door-to-door.
So, and it's interesting youmentioned that because for me, I
had a lot of people on my routewho didn't look like me.
Of course.
That's what I'm saying.
You gotta be a chameleon.
You gotta get, yeah.
But then what that done for me,it helped me not be, what's the

(12:49):
word I want to use?
Not not to be inferior.

SPEAKER_02 (12:53):
I love that.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (12:54):
Right?
It it taught me not to fearpeople of wealth, people who
didn't look like me, because Igot practice in communicating
with folks, customer service.
And so I had a unique technique,what I used to do.
So a lot of the paper boys usedto be on our bicycles, and we
had Schwen's beach cruisers.
So we had the the strap, youknow, he had the big bag in

(13:16):
front of you, the big bag in theback.
And then we had the saddle inthe back, right?
So they would just go and tosstheir papers, right?
So what I did is I took everynewspaper, I put it in a plastic
bag.
So the guy, the newspapercompany would give you these
plastic bags for a rainy day.
So when it rains, you'resupposed to put that paper in

(13:37):
the plastic.
So messed up, yeah.
So it don't mess it up.
So I put mines in it all thetime.
And I used to get off my bike, Iused to go up, and I had one of
my homeboys with me.
We would put the newspaperbecause it had a hole in it,
like a doorknob advertiser andput it on their screen.
So they didn't have to come outof their house into the yard or
the driveway to get thatnewspaper.

(13:58):
And so that was part of my tiphustling.
So when I came down forcollection at the end of every
month, they would always put anice tip.
The service.
And so that stuck with me too.
Kids are helping later on.

SPEAKER_02 (14:09):
My sons are gonna have to listen to this, man.
Just the service of doing that,man.
I wish my sons would listen.
Yeah, listen the simple simplethings.

SPEAKER_00 (14:15):
You have a child, like you go from like this, you
know, setting the foundation,right, of your upbringing, and
then kind of you then you havesure you go through a phase like
hustlepreneurship, you want tocall it, right?
Where you're really trying toestablish what it means to be an
entrepreneur.
How do I set that foundation?
How can I, you know, put thecontracts in place?
How can I set these agreements,these business licenses?
But during that, do you feellike you were going through like

(14:36):
a sense of rebellion whereyou're trying to get quick, you
know, money, trying to take, youknow, audit and stuff to try to
take that next step faster?
Or do you feel like you had thepatience to kind of navigate it
in a more like productive way?

SPEAKER_01 (14:45):
No, I don't I don't think it was navigating faster.
I think that, you know, and sowhen you look at the social
issues that really impactedyoung boys and girls of color
during that era, is that we lookat the high crime in black and
brown males and what drivescriminal tendencies, what gives
birth to the criminal.

(15:05):
And so most of us young blackmales lived in single-parent
homes where there's no father.
So a lot of young men hadexperiences of their mothers
happen to prostitute themselvesto put food on the table.
What I mean for that, notwalking on a on a whole track or
anything, but I mean having asugar daddy.
And so when a young black boy orany boy of any color, I would

(15:27):
assume, sees that.
Sees that or come home and seehis mother in multiple
relationships, and when the oldman leaves, mama got a little
money.
Food is on the table.

SPEAKER_02 (15:37):
You see what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01 (15:39):
Because the the relationship of a mother and her
son, that umbilical cord isnever severe.
It's a special relationship.
And it's your first love.
It's your first love.
Exactly.
Absolutely.
And so when you look at whatdrives criminal in young black
males, is the fact that westarted hustling to help mama to
put food on the table, to makesure mama had a little change in

(16:02):
her pocket.
If you ask any drug dealer,especially of color from my
generation, uh why they started,and it was the first thing they
do is they buy their mama'shouse just like an athlete does
in the NBA or the NFL.
We got to get mama a house, wegotta make sure she got money so
she don't have to be sleepingwith an old married man from the
burbs.
Yep.
And so that was a good thing.
That messes subconscious up,man.
Yeah, it messes you, it messesyou up.

(16:22):
No doubt.
I'm not doing this, and that'sthe level of trauma.

SPEAKER_02 (16:24):
Yep.

SPEAKER_01 (16:25):
You know, and then it impacts black males, and I
and I don't when I say blackmales, I speak from my own lived
experience.
I'm a black man.
I get it.
And so I don't I don't I don'thave other type, I don't have
the Hispanic experience with awhite experience, anything like
that.
I speak from my own experiences.
And and so during that era,again, our parents were
uneducated, they lacked certainskills, and so you know,

(16:46):
welfare, you know, food stamps,government ratchings back then
in the 70s, we got commodityfood.
So there were government centerswe went to, and we got peanut
butter, peaches, jelly, bologna,cheese, and all those different
things.
And again, every day I still hadto get on that bus.
And I saw the American Dream.

SPEAKER_02 (17:05):
And you literally take you away.
It's almost like a low exposure.

SPEAKER_03 (17:08):
Yeah, and that's a low vacation in the morning,
man.

SPEAKER_01 (17:10):
And that's why exposure is so important for our
young children so they can seeoptions.

SPEAKER_02 (17:16):
Before I don't I don't want to go down a rabbit
hole, but one of the it's funnybecause my wife and I, we talk
about this all the time.
I will never forget this.
I think I was 20 years old, I'm45 now.
And I remember this man told me,and and it echoed what my father
used to always talk about was hewas saying, do not give your
kids, because I didn't have kidsat the time, do not give your
kids material things, take themon experiences, take them on
travel, get them a passport assoon as they and diapers.

(17:40):
My wife and I did that, and yousee the development of them just
seeing stuff.
You know what I mean?
So that's powerful what you'resaying.

SPEAKER_01 (17:45):
And that's important.
And so, and I think the reasonwhy my grandfather and great
grandfather and father had thoseblinders of poverty and they
didn't have vision is becausethey never was exposed.
Yep.
You understand?
So when you lack exposure, youlack growth and development.
And so when you think aboutmiddle class values, values of
people who come from wealth,they're they're children under

(18:07):
the theater.
You know, they they they go toNiagara Falls, they've been on
an airplane, they've been to anisland, they've been to Europe.
And so it's important thatchildren get to see things and
remove those blinders and seethe possibilities of life.

SPEAKER_02 (18:20):
1000%.
I love that.
How did you end up in prison?
Is it like what where was theturning point that was like,
damn, and it got you caught upwhere you were selling drugs?
Like you were talking aboutearlier.
What got you caught up?

SPEAKER_01 (18:31):
So again, that that that dream, that desire, yeah,
that passion for wealth and toone day get that house on the
hill, eventually led to when Igot in high school, started
selling weed.
Yep.

unknown (18:45):
Right.

SPEAKER_02 (18:45):
So we were in still South Central too.

SPEAKER_01 (18:47):
When I was in San Diego.
Oh, you were in San Diego.
So how I got to San Diego at theage of 16, I got stabbed in a
mall called Cerritos Mall bysome gang members.
Damn, yeah.
So my mother's area, yeah.
My mother was living in SanDiego.
And so after I got out ofhospital, Bellflower Hospital,
my mother came and got me andbrought me to San Diego.
Damn.
And so being in LA aroundhustlers and entrepreneurs and

(19:11):
progressive folks, San Diego wasa quiet town next to the bay.
And so they were 15, 20 yearsbehind time in terms of street
hustling.
And so went out there and gotput on the weed game because you
know borders right there, andyou have Fallbrook, or the
Fallbrooks Mexican cest, theThai bud, the weed that

(19:32):
everybody smoked back then.
So I sold weed in school.
I used to sell dollar pinheadjoints, and I used to sell
diamond nickel bags that I'd putin ziplocks.
And back then I didn't wearboxers, I wore tidy whiteys,
right?
And so every time I went toschool, I would line the front
of my underwear with nickel bagsof weed.
And so that was my littlehustle.
Yeah.
Right.
And then so in the early 1980s,during the so-called war on

(19:56):
drugs, crack cocaine has showedup.

unknown (19:58):
Yep.

SPEAKER_01 (19:59):
In early 1981.

SPEAKER_03 (20:01):
Yep.

SPEAKER_01 (20:01):
So, you know, Los Angeles was on the forefront in
Oakland of the distribution andmanufacturing of back then it
was called rock before crack.
So in the East Coast, theycalled it crack because it used
to be in a vial, little cracksthey would put in a pipe.
But on the West Coast, we cookedrock.
So they had like, you know, a$50rock, a$100 rock,$25 rock.

(20:23):
And so when I saw the guy startmaking that kind of money versus
weed, I'm like, I'm just gonna.
Change the whole game for you.
Yeah, I need to get in on that.
And so I made a$150 investmentand I bought a sixteenth of an
ounce, and I just startedflipping.
I was curb serving that wasrunning up the cars.
Hey man, I got them rocks, man.
I got them rocks.
But after a while, I was saying,like, this is dangerous.

(20:45):
You know, somebody's gonna killit.
Because I've never been a gangmember.

SPEAKER_02 (20:49):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (20:49):
Right?
Because I never saw profit ingangbanging.
Like, I can't dislike someonebecause they live on another
side of town or they're white orHispanic.
You know, I judge everyone onindividual character, you know
what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_02 (21:01):
Going back to that newspaper route.

SPEAKER_01 (21:03):
Yes, exactly.
I'm paying attention, I'mfollowing you.
And this is how I became even asuccessful drug dealer, part of
my life I'm not proud of, but Iwas one of those guys that can
go in any neighborhood.
Crip neighborhood, bloodneighborhood, everybody, yeah.
Hispanic neighborhood.
And so I was a visionary.
I saw the big vision.
And then when you know Scarfacecame out and, you know, all the

(21:25):
drug cart movies back in thosedays, like I wanted to go to
Columbia.
Like, I was serious about thisbusiness all the way down to how
I cooked it and how I packagedit and how I marketed that
product as well, too.
And by the time I was 19, I wasa millionaire.
And so I got the house.
At 19 years old.
At 19.

SPEAKER_02 (21:46):
Wow.

SPEAKER_01 (21:46):
Up in Dictionary Hills, I built a custom
three-story house in DictionaryHills, overlooking Sweetwater
Lake, hooked moms up, family up,because during that era, you
know, there was there was a hugeprofit margins in selling rock
cocaine.
Because you take, and I don'twant to get too deep into that.
I said to myself when I camehere, I didn't want to put a lot

(22:06):
of emphasis on that, but thescience behind that, like, like
we didn't have the intellectualcapacity as chemists to come up
with a formula to turn powderinto a more higher potent drug.
Somebody did that.
Did that.

(22:27):
And during the Iran Contra, thedrugs got here from the weapons
to Iran to South America, likethat shit just showed up,
homeboy.
We didn't have no passports, weain't never been across the
border, we didn't have noairplanes, that shit was just
coming in.
Guys were becoming multi,multi-millionaires overnight.
It was crazy.

(22:48):
It's hard to walk away fromsomething like that.
It's very difficult.
And what happens, even a lot ofour parents turn another cheek.
They in church on Sunday,Pentecostal, Holy Ghost, all
that.
But when that money same here,right?
That's just true.
So I remember I remember when mysister told my mother that I was
selling drugs.
And mom's told me, You have togo.

(23:10):
I'm not, you can't sell drugsand be in my house.
So I bounced.
My mother was single, had mysister and I, but my father been
married other times and hadother kids.
But my mother just had my sisterand I.
And back then they was living inEast San Diego in a one-bedroom
apartment.
And so my sister and I shared acorner group.
I don't know if you remembercorner group.

(23:30):
I'm going back to the day.
No, you're not.
So corner group is in the livingroom and is that a West Coast
thing?
It could be.
Okay.
There's a little table in thecorner, and then the couch you
sit on are beds and you pullthem out so two people can sleep
there.
Oh, gotcha.
So we slept in the living room.
Gotcha.
And then after you wake up, youmake you take your blankets

(23:50):
away, you push that back in.

SPEAKER_02 (23:52):
You know what's a matter of fact?
I remember staying at a hotel inLong Beach way back in the day,
and I think it had it like that.

SPEAKER_01 (23:56):
Okay.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (23:57):
It's called a corner group, right?

SPEAKER_01 (23:59):
Okay.
And I came by to see my mom, mysister, and I told my sister, I
said, Look, get this to mom.
It was$10,000.

unknown (24:07):
Damn.

SPEAKER_01 (24:08):
$10,000,$100 bills is about that thick right there.
And gave it to moms.
And moms paid me.
I came over there and she shejust thought it was nickel and
diamond it.
But at this time I startedmoving in some weight.
And then I came with the moneyand I gave my moms$10,000 and
she turned her other cheek.
Like so many mothers did.

(24:30):
None of us saw the damage, thelong-term damage that rock
cocaine was going to have in ourcommunity.
So this is why we're having theissues we have today from the,
you know, the violence, theanger, and our young people.
It stems from that era.
And so during that time, youknow, I started eight cars, I
had customer Sadies, and Iunderstood certain value systems

(24:53):
because even back then, I usedto travel like to Jamaica and
Hawaii.
And we used to go like this.
It was this Easter's travelagency in San Diego.
I would go in there and buy like12 first-class round tickets.
And all the homeboys would go toJamaica for, you know, seven,
eight days over there, party,live it up, have a good time and
stuff.
Yeah.
And then what what but the toughpart of it was is that the

(25:16):
little homies that was ridingbicycles, remember the visual
learning?
They were watching us with thecars, the jewelry, the women,
all of that came.
And then when you look at thethe the crack cocaine era of the
1980s, you look at themulti-billion dollar industries
that was born out of that.
See, we were the first, and I'llshow you pictures.
I have receipts for everything.

(25:37):
So I can back up everything Isay with receipts, with photos,
documentation.
You know, we had the big Turkishrope chains with the big
Mercedes medallions, right?
And then the athletes wanted tobe like drug dealers.
And so that as you see all thedrug dealers.
1000%.
Yeah, they get the big chains,the diamonds, earrings, and
stuff.

(25:58):
And so we created the we we weevolved the diamond and gold
industry back in those days.
When you think about thepedicure, manicure shops,
everybody's getting pettymanny's, right?
Yeah.
There was a in LA there was anail salon called Man Trap.
Man trap.
Inglewood.
Okay.
So when you think about the nameMan Trap, so women come there,

(26:19):
get the nails done, their feet.
That's where they startedbecause before then it was
press-on-nails.
Okay.
You know, you go to like pickand save or whatever, and you
the girls press the nails on.
So that's when that became verypopularized, pedicure manicures
back then, right?
And then you look at the fashionindustry, fila, elise, starter
jackets, air Jordans.

(26:41):
Like Jordan should have anonprofit that just puts money
back in prisons because of theguys who killed to get those
shoes.

SPEAKER_02 (26:51):
Back in the day, we couldn't wear Jordans.
Yeah, they'd get robbed.
Oh yeah, no, they'll shoot.
Exactly, exactly.
In the 80s, it was serious withthe footlocker on the map.

SPEAKER_01 (27:01):
You know, so then we bought cars, you know, Mercedes,
Rolls-Royce's.
They didn't really do Bentley'sback then, but a lot of homeboys
had like Rolls-Royces and BMWs,Candy Paints, Music, and then
the cell phone industry.
Like I had the big NEC brickphone, and you know, that
industry was born out of there.
You know, we bought real estate,uh, we traveled.
So when you think about criminalmoney that's incorporated in the

(27:25):
economy in this country, is whyI always say crime will never go
away.
There has to be crime.
Yeah.
There has to be loopholes.
I mean, drugs dealing createdthe DEA.
It created narcotics task force.
It created the ATF from thedrive-by's and the AK-47s and
all of that.
Too many late eras.

SPEAKER_00 (27:46):
You gotta go spend it, right?
You can't invest it.
It's hard to invest uh moneythat's coming in with that.

SPEAKER_01 (27:50):
So then how the feds work in those days, too, like
they'll let you build up,they'll watch you for a long
period of time.
Build up, get real estate, getassets, come indict you, then
take all your stuff.
Take all your stuff, yeah.
You feel me?

SPEAKER_02 (28:03):
So it's usually your paperwork, paperwork ain't set
up that way, so it's going backto the exactly.

SPEAKER_01 (28:07):
You know, because like we all bought houses, but
we use the same real estate manthat was selling the houses to
all the drug dealers.
So we just wasn't thinking likethat.
And then you gotta think aboutthe music industry, gangster
rap, another multi-billiondollar industry.
That's when RB kind of went tothe wayside back then because
they wanted to promote theviolence in the drug dealing and
rap music would begin to takethe get the young kids thinking

(28:32):
violently and and and valuingmaterialistic things.
Yeah.
And then on top of that, the$190billion mass incarceration
business.
So, you know,$90 billionindustry in the United States
prison system from juvenile.
I don't even know it was$190,000state and federal.

(28:53):
$190.
Because inside of these prisons,there's factories.
All your airplane seats are madein prison.
When you go to Costco and you goto the to to Walgreens, you get
two pair of prescription glassesfor$99.
That's all that shit's made inprison.

SPEAKER_02 (29:07):
Is it true?
Like I was reading about that,right?
Like they were saying that theprison system in the future
knows how much to build andconstruct everything by
single-family homes and the homenine.

SPEAKER_01 (29:22):
So that's called correctional forecasting, right?
That's true.
Yes.
So they also study the failurerate of kids in schools.
Like here in Clark CountySchool, that's the third largest
school district in the country,350.
Yes.
And so so they have what youcall behavior schools here,
alternative schools.
And so we work in an alternativeschool called Peterson.

(29:44):
And so most of the young kidsthere, they got ankle bracelets,
they have some type of criminalbehavior activity in a regular
school.
Yep.

SPEAKER_02 (29:51):
And so that's through your Jeff uh the Chef
Jeff project.
Chef Jeff Project.
I want to ask you about thattoo.

SPEAKER_01 (29:56):
And then so, so, so when they when when you look at
the failure rate.
The kids not going to school,the addiction of vaping and
drugs, there's a greater chanceof them getting incarcerated one
day.
And so that's how they forecastthe building of prisons based on
that.
And broken families where youngboys are growing up in a house
with just the mother, thefather's either in prison or not

(30:19):
in that child's life.
So those kids kind of grow upuncivilized a little bit
because, you know, kids aren'tdisciplined and they lack
structure that we had.
Yeah, because there was a Mr.
Johnson on the corner can thumpyou upside the head back in the
days and bring you home to yourto your mama.

(30:40):
And we got paddled in school.
So I was getting paddled everyweek.
My ass stay rest.
You know, the principal had topaddle with the hose in there,
and you get lashes.
Yeah, that's crazy.
But that's structure, that'sdiscipline, that's respecting
authoritative figures.
And so now with that gone, andthen home economics, wood shop,

(31:00):
metal shop, all those basicprogrammings are there.
Because everybody's not collegematerial.
So you remove all of that, whatare these young people gonna do?
Yeah.
Play video games.

SPEAKER_02 (31:11):
Yeah, and that's a wood process.
So, like how you said prisonsaved your life.
Yes.
Correct.
How how so?

SPEAKER_01 (31:17):
So in 1988, I got indicted by the feds.
Okay.
So in the mid-80s up into the90s, massive indictments all
across this country.
So they flood the community withthe drugs and the weapons.
So guys build massive fortunes,right?
Then all that gets confiscated,and then they start building up

(31:38):
the prison system.
Because in the prison system,every prison has factories.
When I was in Terminal Island,we made metal furniture that
went to U.S.
government and foreigngovernments.
Wow.
You have prisons that rebuildalternators for military T1
tanks and electrical harness formilitary jets.
You have prisons that uh that doprinting.

(32:01):
So I I do a lot, I was this inNorth Carolina prison system in
Ohio.
They have printing factories,they make logos, patches,
everything in these prisons thatsell for cheap for the
government.
So these are the contracts thatyou get.
The contracts you get in theprison.
I followed it.
And so the more time you have,you're in these prison factories

(32:21):
working for 12 cents, 20 centsan hour, and and stuff in these
prisons, so it becomes bigbusiness.
And so I wound up serving almost10 years in a federal system.
Wow.
And so I was 23 years old when Iwent in.
And so I was in in prison whenit was called Club Feds.
I don't know if you ever heardthat term.

(32:42):
I think I did from a movie, butwhat does that mean?
So club fed means, okay, so thefederal prison system is totally
different from statecorrectional institutions.
In state prisons, you have morehardcore, you got guys in there
that shot four people to 200bucks.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

(33:02):
So any crime that's federal,like bank robbery, any crime
that happens on a federalhighway is or or or or just like
people, a lot of money crimes.
Anything crossed state lines andstuff like that.
So it's federal.
And so when I went in thefederal system, I was in there
with during the time that IvanBolski, Michael Milken, I was in
there with the former presidentCEO of Paramount Studios,

(33:24):
bankers.
Oh, so you was picking thesebrothers.
Yeah, yeah, no, they these guyswas like high level.
Everyone in there was all thebig cartel bosses.
I I used to my cell was acrossfrom Rosario Gambino.
I used to read a newspaper tohim almost every day because his
English wasn't that good.
He was serving 45 years for the,he was, they were running
heroin, the Gambino familythrough the pizza shops in New

(33:47):
York City.
And so even though he was anEast Coast mafia dude, he was
placed in Terminal Island.
Really nice guy.
He was the only prisoners thatwore a Rolex watch and a gold
chain with a rosary.
And even the warden at that timewas a full retired full birth
colonel named Fred C.
Stock.
And he everyone called him Mr.

(34:07):
Gambino.
It was a short guy.
And so I heard about the mafiaas a kid on television.

SPEAKER_03 (34:12):
I said, I can slap this dude to the ground
anywhere.

SPEAKER_01 (34:15):
Yeah, right.
You already know you likecalling home the moms and be
like, hey, your whole family didit home for like 10 days, right?
Your whole family did it forreal.
But he was a super world, when Isay world-class gentlemen, like
those guys were criminals, butthey had they had structure.
They weren't dirty criminalslike you get a lot in the
States.

(34:36):
Extremely sophisticated.
Yeah, they're not like, yeah,they were intelligent.
You know, these mafia guys werelike, you know, the kids, they
grow up straight.
You know, one kid goes to be anaccountant, one kid goes and be
a criminal defense attorney, onekid may be a real estate broker.
So that's how they clean,they're not buying like all
their whole setup.

(34:56):
And so being in prison withthese high-level convicts, you
know, federal judge in there,and what was his name?
Alan Hastings.
He was a black federal judge outof Miami for corruption.
He was there.
And so these guys were veryelitist.
They were like the onepercenters.
And so they taught a lot ofbusiness classes, marketing,
public.
Why you were in prison?
Yes.
Oh, yeah.
Because they didn't want to workin a factory, so they created

(35:18):
educational courses for a lot ofthe other inmates.
And so this was the first timein American history that the
federal system was flooded withblack prisoners and Hispanic
prisoners who came from povertybecause of the level of drugs
that was being moved and theassets that we had moved us up

(35:41):
to that federal level.
I follow you.
And so when Nancy Reagan cameout with just say no, the war on
drugs, that's when they cleanedup.
Was it part of a big conspiracymaster plan to break up families
of color?
They say that's a conspiracy,right?
They say it's a conspiracy thatthe federal government allowed

(36:01):
the weapons and the cocaine tocome into our communities.
Because again, drug treatment isa multi-billion dollar industry.
Everybody get paid.
Especially you said$190 billion.
$190 billion, Google it.
That's unreal.
I might be off by five billion.
I was in it, I read thepaperwork, I see it.
I'm at correctional conferences,the American Correctional

(36:24):
Associates, American probationand parole.
So I teach at these associationsaround the country, so I get
access to those numbers.
And so crazy in prison, bitter,blaming everyone, my father for
not being in my mother, mysister.
This any I blamed everyone.

(36:45):
And it didn't come to a timewhere I started to hold myself
accountable.
It didn't happen overnight.
You know, so in prison, you havedifferent cards, right?
And so you got the Chicago car,you got the East Coast, you got
the Mexican Mafia, you got theArea Nation, you got the Crip
card, the blood card, and yougot all these different sets.
And so when you go into thesystem, everybody is lobbying to

(37:08):
recruit you to get in that card,right?
And so me coming out of SanDiego, I rolled with the 619,
which was a San Diego car.
We stuck together in casesomething jumped off.
We had each other's back.
Even though I wasn't gangaffiliated, but originally from
LA, I had a lot of crip partnersfrom LA that I went to school

(37:28):
with in Long Beach and in LA.
So I was got guy caught in themiddle.
That's tough.
So I had to really ever it wasstressful for me because I had
to navigate the prison politicstrying not to take a side.
But then again, you have tochoose a side because if I had
an issue with somebody on theyard, I need that protection,

(37:49):
right?
And so then you have theChristians, you have you have
the Muslims, you have the Nationof Islam, then you have Orthodox
Muslims, then you had the Jewishcar, then you had the Catholic,
then you had atheism in prison,you had Native Americans, we had
a TP on the yard.
Because the one thing thefederal government does, they
respect everybody's religion.

(38:09):
And so you had Imams coming in,you had pastors coming, you had
gospel people.
And so I was lost.
So I knew nothing about history.
I lacked self-love because myparents never, like one day I
asked my dad, said Dad, was youever in the Black Panther?
Was you down with the movementin the 60s?
He didn't know anything aboutthat.
No, my grandfather didn'teither, because as I became

(38:32):
conscious in prison, soeverybody was lobbying to get
me, right?
And so there was a guy namedMze.
Mze had long locks, like down tohis butt, and they were mad at
it.
You could tell guys who gotfresh locked, they get him put
in there, but his was like madat it.
And so he was part of the BLA,the Black Liberation Army.
If you're not familiar withthem, looked him up.

(38:53):
And so it was a revolutionarygroup uh in the South that
smuggled weapons from Mexicothat didn't have serial numbers
on there, and then theyrecruited prostitutes who gave
birth to kids, and they hadhouse, they had midwives.
So they were birthingrevolutionaries into the world
that didn't have Social Securitynumbers or fingerprinting.

(39:15):
So that way they can go onmissions of killing record.
So that's even like during, likeif that's why the cartel, when
they get robbed by black gangmembers here, they bring in guys
across the border, theirfingerprints ain't registered
nowhere.
They come over, do a hit, boom,they gone.
You know, or guys go crawl outof state and they do hits like

(39:36):
that.
And so MZ, he was an older guy.
He gave me a book called BlackMen Obsolete, Single Dangerous.
And I'm like, man, I don't wantto read this shit.
I'm not into that.
You know, and he would alwayspull me to the side.
They was always huddling intheir little corner on the yard,
talking about black history, thestruggle.
And then you had the nation ofIslam, who, and their, and their

(39:59):
Bible back then was calledMessage to the Black Man.
And then you have the Christianswho had the Bible, the Muslims
had the Quran, and then you hadthe Jewish people, so they were
all pulling.
And then the the nation guys,you know, they had their shirts
buttoned up.
You're out of Chicago, so you'revery familiar with the city.
Farrakhan lived across thestreet from my godmother in Hot
Parks.
I know I know the nation verywell.

(40:19):
Yeah, so but but one thing anywarden would tell you, they
respected the nation in prisonbecause they were highly
disciplined.
And they never had problems.
No, and they re and they theywere gang member flippers.
So I met a guy, I used to be theperson.
Yeah, so so they took the gangmembers and and shifted their
mentality instead of saying, whyare you killing your brother?

(40:41):
Love your brother.
And so when when I went to watchthe video and listen to him, and
then they started teachinghistory, like, you know, 400
years ago before we came here,kings and queens and all the the
things that that that we done inthis country from architects to
things we invented.

(41:01):
I'm like, damn, why didn't myschool teacher ever tell me
that?
You know, why my dad?
And then I was calling my dad,said dad, why you ever, mom, why
you ever tell me this shit?
And you're learning this inprison.
In prison.
Yeah.
Right?
And so I graduated from highschool, but not with a G D.
I graduated with a certificateof completion.
The schools back in those dayswere funded.

(41:22):
They they they pass kids throughgrades without even qualifying
because they keep you in theschool, and the kids get and the
schools are funded.
So I should have nevergraduated.
Yeah, buddy.
And then I wind up going toschool.
So I got the books, I startreading, and I just start
thinking different.
I start analyzing things.
Okay, now I now I see, now Iknow why we was always poor.

(41:45):
Now I know how those people wholived in the burbs got those
houses.
And so I started valuingeducation, information, and
being exposed.
And so every race in prison hadtheir own TV room.
The white dudes had their TVroom, the blacks had theirs,
Hispanics, Asian, IslandPacificers have theirs, and the

(42:05):
Wall Street boys had theirs.
And so in their TV room, theyalways watch 60 Minutes, 2020
Primetime Live, Financial News.
They had Wall Street Journal,USA Today, National Geographics.
And so I used to go by their TVroom and just look through the
window.
And I could see the TV, but Ireally couldn't hear.
Then one day the Wall Streetdude said, Come on in.

(42:28):
And so before I went in, I kindof looked to make sure none of
the homeboys said, What are youdoing going up in the white boys
TV?
And so I went in and took a seatin the back and started watching
60 Minutes.
And what 60 Minutes wasattractive to me was because Ed
Bradley, uh Schaefer, youremember all those characters on

(42:50):
and they would always doreportings from around the
world.
So you're getting a whole globalYeah, and so Africa, China, and
then they had NationalGeographics.
And so I like that book becausethere was always pictures of,
you know, Amazon.
I had never seen that shitbefore.
And became very interesting tome.

(43:10):
And then so having conversationswith them, they had a
Toastmasters in Terminal Island.

SPEAKER_02 (43:16):
Yeah, that's multi- that's multi-mark.
The Toastmasters that's likepublic speaking, yeah, public
masters.
Yeah, public speaking, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (43:21):
And so me, they're sh they're steel sharpening
steel while they're doing time.
And they watching theirfinancials from prison.
So their accountants is comingin the visiting room.
They make it so that's residualmoney.
They're making money while theydoing time.
We didn't we didn't set ourmoney up like that.
We had the cars, the jewelry,and all that.
And then went to Toastmasters.

(43:42):
Is that how do you learn tospeak?
I always knew how to speak.

SPEAKER_02 (43:45):
Okay, as far as like public speaking person.

SPEAKER_01 (43:47):
Yes, public speaking was my first, and I and I'm
gonna show you before I leave.
I got a picture of me.
It's weird, man.
Like, I don't know why I tookcertain pictures, even in public
speaking in prison, and I gotpictures of me in my prison chef
uniform without even dreaming ofit, it was a hustle or speaking.
And I got all these things, andthat's how I wind up getting on

(44:08):
Oprah.
Because she didn't believe a lotof it.
And then I came with receipts,and she was like, Oh, okay.
So every part of my story, I Igot the pictures, right?
And so the guy said, Listen, Iwant you to talk about how you
became a millionaire at 19, 20years old.
And so I talked about all mymarketing strategies.
I was a chameleon, how I dresseddifferent to go in different
hoods.
Yeah.
And then when I went to LA, Ibought like three Nissan Centras

(44:31):
brand new 1985 Nissan Centras inMission Bay.
And then I always had like I hada female would drive the car,
kids in the car.
I had I had packages fromshopping that would go in the
car.
It's a whole hustle.
Yeah, and then before they hadthe golf shirts, we had La
Tigra.
I don't know if you guysremember La Tigra.
You remember La Tigra?

(44:53):
Remember, remember Britta canBritish little flag.
So it was a shirt just likethis.
Okay, okay, okay.
With a with an alligator.
Had the stripes on?
Oh, yeah.
That was back in the day.
Yeah, that was back in the day.
Yeah, yeah.
And I would have that on.
Okay.
And then I didn't look gangsterin the street because I had
tattoos.
But that was the whole purpose.
Yeah, and I never got tattoosbecause I always had homeboys
that got busted based on theirtattoos.

(45:14):
No, yeah, they know.
I never got tattoos.
And so I went up there, gave myspill.
I think I had 12 minutes, 15minutes, and came off.
And then the dude came up to me,he said, Jeff, you say, You
smart.
I said, What do you mean?
He said, When you was on thestreet, you understood
marketing, branding, publicrelations, distribution, you
understood profit and loss.
You know how to manage diverseworkforce.

(45:34):
I never heard those wordsbefore.
I didn't know what marketing andany of that shit was, right?
So there's a very thin linebetween entrepreneurship and
hustlepreneurship.
Very thin line, right?
So he said to me, he said, Jeff,he said, man, he says, all you
gotta do is change the product.
I said, man, you can besuccessful in anything.
And so through reading BlackHistory, I started to love

(45:56):
myself and love my people andcommunity.
And so in 1990, vividly Iremembered I still have the
ebony magazine, it came outbecause it took 10 years for the
medical research folks and thegovernment to study the impact
of crack on the human body.

(46:17):
It's just like when the pandemicno one knew how to address that.
They needed time.
Same with HIV.
Back in the days, guys was dyinglike this with AIDS.
Now you live a whole life.
You needed time just to studythat.
Magic Johnson is still rolling,right?
And so it came out, themagazine, and on the front it

(46:37):
had two little black babies witha bunch of vials of crack in it.
And that's where the term crackbabies came from.
And so back in that era, whenpeople were getting hooked on
crack, they started with primos.
So after you know, they smokedthe weed, the weed got weaker.
The Mexican cest got weaker, andthen they started sprinkling a
little bit of rock in there.

(46:58):
So it's called primos.
You get a little bit of weed anda little bit of that crack in
there, too, is highly addictive.
And so you had suburban mother,you had wives, professional,
lawyers, doctors, wealthy whitekids from the burbs coming in
the hood getting crack.
And so when they when they ranout of money and got broke, then

(47:20):
they prostituted themselves toget high.
Whether it was, you know,chronographic, but they traded
that to get high.
And through that process, youhad a generation of children who
were born addicted to crack, butalso not knowing who their
father was.

SPEAKER_02 (47:40):
That's wild.

SPEAKER_01 (47:41):
So now you have the drug dealer baby, you have the
crack baby, you have the sugardaddy's baby, then you have the
military, because San Diego is amilitary town, so every time the
ships came in, you know, all thegirls were rushed to the Navy
clubs, and then they get knockedup, and then these kids got
young guys are going back home.
So you had a generation of youngpeople.

(48:02):
So now when you think about theanger, the violence, you think
about these mothers bringingchildren in the world, like,
damn, who's a father?
I just had a train run on melast night, 15 guys.
That's how I got high for awhole week.
Who's the daddy?
And so that's the generation ofthe 80s where there was no
family structure, there was nomiddle class values, and the

(48:22):
mothers didn't really want thekids, then that became a welfare
hustle.
More kids you got, the morewelfare money you got.
And so that addiction has goneon and on and on, and it's just
destroyed a generation of blackpeople and brown families,
right?
And so when I saw that magazine,tears is woman.
Because I was a part of that.

SPEAKER_02 (48:42):
I was just about to say that because you you did
that.
I was I did that.

SPEAKER_01 (48:45):
I was there, I was in the rock houses.
I I cooked cocaine, I packagedit, I sold it, I coached, I
taught a sales team, you know, II motivated, I taught guys, I
said, man, leave the colorsalone, stop banging.
Let's get this paper, right?
Because money is money.
No matter who's buying yourproduct, you know, I don't care
if who you're selling it to,because that's like anything.

(49:05):
Like you can't be a racist carsalesman.
Not at all.
The color's green.
It's green.
It's gonna impact your yourbottom line, right?
Yeah.
And so I always understood that,but didn't know the terminology
of that.
And so on and on anyway.
So, anyway, I I get became veryclose with the Wall Street guys,
and you know, they was puttingme up on game, and I lost my job
once and got fired and put me inthe kitchen on pot and pan

(49:28):
detail after I got out ofsolitary confinement and got in
the kitchen, and I started uhwashing dishes and stuff and
then helping the cooks out.
It got really good.
There was a guy by the name ofMr.
Womack, and he was the headinmate cook, and he took me
under his wing.
He taught me how to cook.
And so while I was working inthe kitchen with him, I started
an underground catering businessbecause I wanted favor from the

(49:51):
Wall Street dude.
So I said, How do I get closerto them?
So, what is the number onecommodity in prison?
Food.
So I started stealing all thered onions, hard-boiled eggs,
extra chicken out of the kitchenwhen I became the head made
cook, cookies, baked goods.
Then I traded them.
So the Wall Street guys werevery elitist.
They didn't want to wait in linelike all the rest of the combat.

(50:11):
So I served, I cooked for them.
We had microwaves, I madecheesecakes, I made top ramen
noodle dishes, all kind of shit.
And so the the Wall Street guys,they want their top ramen
noodles, so they wanted, youknow, chicken to go in there,
and I had onions and, you know,I seasoned, I was still
seasoning my socks low.
I used to stuff my underwear.
I walked out the kitchen, Ilooked like I was pregnant.

(50:32):
I stole everything that wasn'tlocked up in the in the in the
refrigerator.
And then, you know, so we ategood.
The Fed system, we ate good.
When I first got indicted, wehad T-bone steaks every week.
In the Fed system, yeah, withthe bone.
No, not now.
That's all changed.
After after the 60-minute uhstory broke in 1991.

(50:52):
Showing what's really happening.
Yeah.
So so the federal system wasbuilt for wealthy white men who
got their hand caught in thecookie jar.

SPEAKER_03 (51:01):
Got it.

SPEAKER_01 (51:01):
And government officials, judges,
congresspeople, because theythey passed the budgets.
Got it.
So they made sure the federalprison system had a huge budget.
Swimming pools, bocce ballcourts, law library that would
mirror USC law school.
Like we had a wood shop, leathershop, metal shop, tennis courts,
handball courts.

SPEAKER_02 (51:22):
That's wild.

SPEAKER_01 (51:23):
We had a gym that would make 24-hour fitness look
like it's nothing.
Baseball diamonds.
We had basketball.
That's crazy as hell.
But that but that's how it wasdesigned then.
And then so when 60 Minutes dida special on Club Fed, they
exposed it.
And so they filled the swimmingpools, they took away a lot of

(51:43):
those.
We had a movie theater.
We saw movies like six, maybethree to six months after they
showed at AMC Theater.
We had we had a real before youeven got it on Tater stuff.
Yeah, that's right.
Yeah, we we we had that inthere.
You know what I'm saying?
So for me, prison refined me.

(52:05):
I went in prison with a highlevel of how the world works.
I understood business from astreet level.
How it really works.
Yes.
Yeah.
And in prison, the the WallStreet guys became so fast.
I became so fascinated with themof how they built wealth, how
they stuck together, how theydidn't waste time.
They didn't play sports.

(52:26):
You know, all the homeboysplaying basketball, lifting
weights, getting all buffed.
They was on this.
I got a little yoked up when Iwas in there, but once I started
getting that knowledge, forwhat?
I'm I want this.
I quit lifting weights.
That's why you don't see me allswole up, tatted up.
So I understood, you know, howto get access, how to build
those relationships and stuff.

SPEAKER_00 (52:47):
And how did that like translate into like the
Chef Jeff project?
Right.
I think obviously that's the youknow main point.
They want to make sure before werun out of time, we can get a
chance to really poke.
No, no, no.
I like listening all day.

SPEAKER_02 (52:57):
I like listening to it for sure.

SPEAKER_00 (52:58):
I think for sure.
But I think really we want toleave out on you know, really
the positivity, right?
The Chef Jeff Project and whatyou're bringing to the table,
what that mission's about, andlike what you're looking to
accomplish from that.
Gotcha.

SPEAKER_01 (53:07):
And you know, it was all born out of, you know,
successful.
You know, there's a certain,there's a process that everyone
has to go through to get here.
My process was pretty processwith Vegas Circle.
One day you all gonna have thisarena before you go straight.
You're going through thatprocess right now, right?

(53:29):
And so I came out in 1996, and afamous chef in Beverly Hills
named Robert Gatsby, who workedfor Thomas Keller, Joe Robishon,
Alan DeCossi.
You know, Thomas Keller is theone chef in the world.
And so he was opening up aplace.
I read about him in the USAToday in prison, and he was
opened up at 672 Wilshire LeBrayin Beverly Hills.
And I started writing himletters from prison.

(53:50):
Hey, I'm getting out October the2nd.
Uh I love opportunity.
I'm a great dishwasher.
I know how to cook, but mostlyinstitutional cuisine.
And I made my way to BeverlyHills, and uh he didn't hire me
right away.
He was a British guy, superpolished, clean shaven, had the
wireframe glasses, starch whitecoat, smoked cigars.
He had mostly this high-endfolks coming there, and he

(54:11):
eventually hired me, taught meclassical French cooking, took
me under his wing.
I went on to work at Gatsby's tothe Rich Carlton, the Marriott
Hotel Bel Air, Lair Matas, allthe high-end stars.
All five star, five diamond.
Like, so I strategicallyselected the places that I
worked is because I'm this typeof guy.
When I was on the street, Istudied the most successful drug

(54:32):
dealers.
And so whoever was the rich,wealthiest drug dealers, I
watched them, I study the carsthey drove, the clothes they
wore, how they communicated, howthey build relationships, how
they went in differentcommunities in different states
and set up business.
So coming out of prison, I wantto know who the top chef was.
What do they know?
I don't know.
So I went and got jobstratically at restaurants and

(54:54):
hotels where the top chefs wereasked.
And so I didn't have theculinary pedigree, the
background, so I always went inas a dishwasher.
And then I never took a break, Inever took vacation, I never
called in sick.
So you had a gift to gab, so youknow how to work your way.

SPEAKER_02 (55:09):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (55:09):
Yeah.
And so what I did is so on mylunch break, I went over to the
fine dining restaurants and Iposted up and I just studied the
guys' watch them, I askedquestions.
They threw menus and recipes inthe trash.
I would take them out.
I had a dictaphone because Ididn't understand French
terminology lexon flaws.
And so I would record them.
And then I had what you call afood lover's guy, food

(55:31):
companion, that has a dictionarywith all French culinary
terminology.
And that's how I taught myselfand I bought cookbooks.
And so I had clean shaved myface, took makeup, covered my
earring home, started getting myhands manicured and polished,
get invested in getting my grilltight.
So nothing about me wasthreatening.
Nothing about me said prison.
And so I worked my way offthrough LA, went to San Diego, I

(55:54):
ran a restaurant called Escal,breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
It used to be, it used to be theLa Meridi in a French four-star
hotel.
The Marriott took it over.
I chefed that for a year, cameback to LA, worked at Rich
Carlton in a fine dining roomwith a three Michelin Star Chef,
Gerard Ferry.
It was interesting because Inever ate S-cargo, uh caviar.
So I learned about Triple Zero,Beluga Caviar, Taruga Caviar.

(56:15):
So I had to taste all thesedifferent foods.
I was like, damn, you know, itjust I had no palate for that
shit.
But I had to, I had to become Ihad to cook it and taste it,
right?
Yeah.
And then so I set my sights onVegas in 2001.
I came here, stayed at thejockey club.
You guys know the jockey club?
Yeah, right next to Belagia.
Before it was surrounded, it wasthe cheapest place to stay on

(56:36):
the strip because it was ownedby private owners.
And so I started at MandalayBay.
I worked my way all the way downParis.
They put Paris hotels prettymuch hired me, introduced me to
the kitchen I was going to beworking in, the staff, and then
when a record came up, theysaid, we're gonna call and get
back what you never did.
So Caesars was the only place Ididn't want to apply because I

(56:57):
didn't tell you about thatbefore, but I used to be a high
roller at Caesars.
Caesars used to cater to all theblack drug dealers, mafia, Arabs
from all across the world.
So they already knew who.
They were the only game in town.
So I used to come, we used tocome in there with Louis Pan,
Louis Vuitton, duffel bags, two,three, four hundred thousand
cash, all the sugar leonard,Marvus Hagler, Mike Tyson, Larry
Holmes fights.

(57:18):
He had Caesars.
Back in the days, the fightswere outside before they had
showroom, big showrooms likethat.
So the fights were alwaysoutside under a big tent.
And so I saw Marvus Hagler'slast fight when he fought Sugar
Ray Leonard.
If you watch the HBO film,you'll see me and my boys coming
down.
We're like maybe five seats fromthe ring.

(57:41):
I had a big old Mercedesmedallion.
We had all the jewels on,couldn't tell it's nothing,
right?
And so I had every filling.
And so I used to be, I had agambling addiction back in the
day.
So I used to, man, I probablylost 300,000 here in Vegas at
Caesars back in the days.
Even today, I don't go incasinos unless I have I'm

(58:03):
speaking, I have business,because when I see when I see
the tables, I've never touchedanything since four almost 40
years ago.
When I see the tables, mystomach knots up.
When I see dice, they knot up.
So I don't have a good feelingin casino.
So I'm glad when I was workingthere in the kitchen, I was in
the back of the house.
So I never saw that.

(58:23):
And so I I put my resume in, andJim Perello, he was an Italian
chef from New York, called meinto office and interviewed me.
Not my first, but I got multipleinterviews, but he didn't care
about the record.
He said, He said, Jeff, you everkill anybody?
I said, No, sir.
He said, Can you cook?
I said, Yes, sir.
He said, That's all he wanted toknow.
That's all he wanted to know.
So he used to be the executivechef of the Beverly Hills Hotel,

(58:44):
the Big Big Way.
Oh, so you interviewed.
I was at the Bel Air on StoneCanyon.
Got it.
Both were five stars.
I mean, Michael Jackson, Oprah.
We owned a 99-room boutiquehotel.
And then he said, Come in andcook.
And so he wanted six courses.
So there were other chefscompeting for the job.
Chef Tornat and La Scal, theItalian restaurant, not La Scal,
um Tarassa.

(59:04):
And so he said, Okay, sixcourses I want.
And he and they had a roundbanquet table, and the vice
president, everybody was there.
So I did seven courses insteadof six.
So I up one on other chefs.
Because everything I had to doalways had to be better, had to
be extraordinary.
It couldn't be ordinary, neverordinary for me.
Everything above average for me.

(59:25):
And so, you know, banquet china,you know how you go to banquets?
Yeah, yeah.
You got that old ugly bone-whitechina with the salmon been in
the warming box.
So I came in the night beforethe prep and I went to every
restaurant in Caesars and I tookChina from every restaurant.
I was the only chef who haddifferent china for each one of
my courses.
Stood out.
Stood out.
Remember Standout.
So this guy named MarcusBuckingham, you got to get his

(59:47):
book called Standout.
And so again, that's part of thewhole process.
Your podcast.
How do you stand out above allthe other, you know, it's being
innovative and creative.
And I was the same way, even asAdrian.
Dylan.
Like, how do I I didn't gangbang, so I didn't have the
violence around me because Iknow violence brings police.
Yep.
So I stayed low-key.

(01:00:07):
I never went to parties hardly,ever went to a concert.
Why?
Because that's where all thefights and neighborhoods jump
off.
So I was never there.
So I I moved very strategically.
And so when I came here and Igot to, so he hired me at
Caesars.
I was I was a chef tornado atTarasa.
Within three months, he promotedme to the first black exec chef

(01:00:28):
and he put me in the Palatianbuffet.
Even though I came from a finedining background, traditionally
black chefs in Vegas don't getfurther than the coffee shop or
buffet or catering.
Like we rarely got steakhousesor fine dining rooms.
It's just the culture here backthen, right?
And so I got promoted to thePalacian buffet, turned that

(01:00:50):
place around, and then I finallygot an interview at Bellagio
because I came here to go toBellagio.
Okay.
The big B, the Bentley of themall back then.
That's the best, yeah.
And I came into Bellagio, I hadto wait three chefs get fired to
finally get a guy, a guy by thename of Wolfgang Wolfgang von
Weezer, hired me as an assistantchef of Cafe Lago.

(01:01:11):
And then got a Cafe Lago asassistant chef.
The other chef went out onstress.
They promoted me to exec chef.
And then that's how, and then Iwas running that restaurant and
it was their premier highestgrossing restaurant on the Las
Vegas strip at the time.
I ran it for about 18 months.
Then one day the phone rang,hello, chef Jeff, may I help
you?
He said, Hey, this is MikeSaltons from New York.

(01:01:31):
I'm a literary agent.
Um, I love your story.
Would you be interested inwriting a book?
And I said, Well, I neverthought about writing a book.
I said, How do you know about mystory?
He says, uh, Karen Page, AndrewDunningberg, they wrote a book
called Becoming a Chef, heard mespeak in New Orleans about my
story.
How I used to cook cocaine andwas a prison, a cocaine chef,
prison chef turned gourmet chef.

(01:01:51):
And then he says, I love yourstory.
I think I can get you a bookdeal.
He said, If I come out, we writea proposal, I get you a book
deal.
Are we in business?
I said, Yeah.
So we came out, I wrote aproposal called Cook from the
Streets of the Stove, fromCocaine to Farguai, went back to
New York.
Every major publishing housewent into a bidding war to

(01:02:12):
publish my memoir.
And we went with uh WilliamMorrow because they had cookbook
background.
So wrote the book.

(01:02:37):
Once we turned in themanuscript, he said, Jeff, he
says, I said, Yeah, what's up,Mike?
He says, You going on Oprah?
I'm like, Oprah.
I'm like, damn, this was like,this overnight, right?
Then Oprah, right?
So then the book came out, wenton Oprah, told my story to the
world.
And then two hours after Oprahwas over, I was in New York, the

(01:02:58):
phone rang again.
Hello, Chef Jeff, might I helpyou?
Say, hey man, what's up, Jeff?
I said, Hey, who's this?
He said, Man, this is WillSmith.
I said, Come on, who's playingon my phone?
So my agent was on a three-waycall with Will.
He was filming I Am Legend inBrooklyn.
And he sent his homeboy to pickme up, and his homeboy was Heavy
D.
He was in a white LincolnNavigator.
He was small.
Big fan of Heavy D.
Yeah, because he had a heartsituation.

(01:03:20):
So Heavy D picks me up.
We head up to Brooklyn.
I spent two days on the set of IAm Legend with Steve Tiss, Jason
Blumenthal, Todd Black.
They do all of Denzel's WillSmith movies.
So all the big boys.
His mother was there.
He had a pimped out trailer likecity block long.
I just couldn't, I just, thiswas just crazy.
I just couldn't fancy.

(01:03:40):
That was fantastic.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I never chased.
When is your movie coming out?
I just don't have a next movieout.
Five o'clock the next day, I hada multi-million dollar movie
deal.
They wrote me a check for$750,000.
That's how I bought the housefor my family that I live in.

SPEAKER_02 (01:03:55):
So you did come up with a movie deal.

SPEAKER_01 (01:03:56):
Yeah, I got the movie deal.
Oh, sure.
And then and then so it's a lotmore money on the back end.
So he bought the rights.
So I spent some time with him,and then they bought the rights.
And then a week later, phonerang again.
Hello, Chef Jeff, my help.
Said it's Bob Tushman, senior VPof Food Network.
Said, We love your story.
We saw her in Oprah.
We want to do a TV show withyou.
I'm like, this dude, I'm tellingyou, it was scary.

(01:04:17):
It's like I was worried someonewas going, just like, why me?
Too positive.
Yeah, so this is how we'releading up to the Chef Jeff
project.
Why me?
Drug dealer, prison, stole.
I was a car thief, broken housesas a kid.
I did all kinds of things.
Why me, right?
And so when you talk about thejourney, the process, and being
highly favored, that's aChristian term.

(01:04:38):
You know, highly how does Jay-Zbecome a multi-billionaire
rapper?
Why didn't other ones come?
He was highly favored.
Right place, the anointed, rightplace, right time, right
relationships, and the process.
So, so got the Food Networkshow.
So they said Bobby Flay was big,he was a big dog, Rachel Ray and
him back then.
So me and Guy Fetty started atthe same time.

(01:05:00):
Guy Fiat started at the sametime.
And so I said, you know, here'san opportunity for me to do some
good with this TV show.
And I said, Let's do the ChefChat project and let me take
at-risk kids into a kitchen anduse the power of food to impact
these kids.
Because in cooking, in theprocess of cooking, the formula,

(01:05:20):
there's leadership, there'sdelegation, there's execution,
there's attention to detail,there's leadership, all these
different principles that aretied in to running a brigade in
a kitchen.
And so we did one, it was a itwas a prime time docufollow
series, and we got one season ofit.
And then after that, I got thebook cookbook deal, and then I

(01:05:41):
was on the road and my wifecalled me.
She said, honey, she says, U.S.
Airlines want you to speak attheir leadership conference in
Scottsdale, Arizona.
And I said, Okay.
I said, Well, they're probablygonna pay me$1,000,$1,500.
We were living on South LossVegas Boulevard in a two-bedroom
apartment with our kids.

(01:06:02):
And then so I got, and then shecalled back a few hours later,
screaming in the phone, I said,You're not gonna believe this.
I said, What happened to thekids?
No, what how much are they gonnapay you?
I said, How much?
She said, 30,000.
Now I'm sitting in a coffee shopin Seattle.
I got my gateway computer.
I'm in gateway's big old thickone with bounce in the middle.

(01:06:23):
I'm on a I'm online, and then Isaid, Let me go, I Googled up
public speaking.
I said, shit, I'm in the wrongdamn business.
I wrote my resume and resignedfrom the Bellaggio at that
moment.

SPEAKER_02 (01:06:34):
From that first gig.

SPEAKER_01 (01:06:35):
Yes.
30 grand.
30 grand.
My first professional speakengagement was 30,000.
And then agents start callingme.
I was with CAA, I was with UTA,I was with Warren Morris and
Endeavour.
And I wound up having four TVshows.
Flipped my food, found me salwith Chef Jeff, and I was on the
game show network with a showcalled Beat the Chefs.

(01:06:57):
And then so that went on and on.
So I wind up quitting.
And then I was still speaking inprison and stuff.
Pandemic hits 2020.
Nobody's traveling.
Everything's shut down.
So I had some I had some changeput away.
And I was at North Las Vegas.
Never go over there.
So one, I'm a creature, habit.
Every time I go to the airport,every time I go to a store, I

(01:07:18):
take the same road, the sameleft turn.
I don't never see it.
Yep.
So I got lost out there and Iwas coming down Las Vegas
Boulevard and I saw these littlekitchens, ghost kitchens.
And I pulled up in there, 4Dcommissary, and I saw these
little kitchens.
I saw the owner and I said,What's happening with these?
Educate me.
He said, We charge$3,000 amonth, has one stove, two

(01:07:39):
tables, refrigerator, and afreezer.
I said, I want this.
So I wired him the money, gotthe place, and I launched the
Chef Jet Project relaunch.
And I went on Facebook and Istarted saying, if you're a
single mother and have a sonwho's having challenges in
school or at home, bring him tothe Chef Jet Project.
And so I started bringing himin.
I thought we were makingbeignets, we're cooking food and

(01:08:00):
mentoring him.
So I was bringing other formerlifers and former drug dealers
to turn a life around.
And so that gave birth to theChef Chet Project relaunch as it
is today.
And so we've been around forfive years now.
That's awesome.
And uh so my family and I haveinvested close to$400,000 of our
own money.

SPEAKER_03 (01:08:18):
Congratulations.

SPEAKER_01 (01:08:19):
So we're now in partnership with the city of Las
Vegas, Clark County, and theEDA.
We won a$2 million grant a fewyears ago.
So now we have a mobile culinaryschool.
So we go into SummerviewDetention Center, we go into
behavior schools and also SpringMountain Youth Camp.
So we're very active in theprevention and intervention
space in Clark County SchoolDistrict, working with

(01:08:42):
disconnected kids in workforcedevelopment.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (01:08:44):
That's fantastic.
That's a great man.
I can listen to you talk for aminute.
Let's do straight, straightmotivational speaking, man.
All right, so we're gonna wrapthis up, man.
But I do gotta go.
I gotta go one thing real quick.

SPEAKER_01 (01:08:55):
So when I was a kid, so this is this is a trip, and I
just thought about this.
Like everything that I've done,it was the sea was already
planted because I used to talk alot as a kid, and I was always
told to shut up.
Sound like that.
It's like all three of us,probably.
And my mother used to slap me inthe mouth for talking too much

(01:09:19):
everywhere I go.
The boy don't never the boydon't never stop talking.
And now I make a livingtraveling the world talking.
So he goes to tell you when aparent is unconscious and lacks
certain values, they can do harmto a child and crush their
potential and their dream.
That's right.
I got two kids that talk out islet them talk.

(01:09:41):
I may plug my ears or somethingout is let them talk.

SPEAKER_02 (01:09:44):
Yeah, let her hear that.
My wife, I'll just put that.
So I gotta ask you, be the chef.
I can't leave out on thisbecause I asked I'm a big
foodie.
What's your favorite restaurantin Basic?
I know you were gonna go there.
Yeah, I think I heard you asksomebody else.

SPEAKER_01 (01:09:54):
Yeah, that's my I ask everybody that.

SPEAKER_02 (01:09:55):
So what's your favorite restaurant in Vegas?

SPEAKER_01 (01:09:57):
Most of the restaurant, most of my eating
out is not here.
Because I'm weird?
Not here in Vegas.
Because I travel so much.
Okay.
So when you're here, when you'rewhen I'm here, so when the
steakhouse.
Okay.
It's Prime Steakhouse atBellaggio, Kraft, Tom Colequio's
place at MGM.
Also, the new used to be NeroSteakhouse at Caesar's.
I'll go there from time to time,right?

SPEAKER_02 (01:10:19):
Kraft Steak we got.
Oh, that's why I engaged.
Lucas is good.
So I gotta I gotta engage atKraft Steak.

SPEAKER_01 (01:10:25):
Okay, Kraft, yeah.
I love Kraft because it's it'smy style.
It's good.
It's good food.
It's good and it's casual.
Yeah, it's great.
I don't like to have to put asuit on.
And so those are my favoriteplaces.
Okay.
But I'm really into street food,comfort food.
I'm a food truck guy, hit foodtrucks up.
I like holes in the walls.
Every city I go to, if you lookat, I'm a coffee officiano, so I

(01:10:47):
hunt down like coffee shops,pastry shops, no matter where I
go, in the country, outside thecountry.
That's what's up, man.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (01:10:53):
So stakes your things, what I got out of it.
And also, you a hard ass worker,man.
Yeah, that's what it is.
What else is next for you, man?
What's what's next on the planfor 2026 coming up?

SPEAKER_01 (01:11:04):
Uh we'll continue to build uh the Chef Chet Project.
We just partnered with a couplenational organizations.
I'm going to Texas, Houston thisweekend with the blacks in
criminal justice.
Okay.
And so there's a renownedresearch professor, Dr.
Yusuf, from Bethune CookmanHistorical Black College.
Dr.
Yusuf's sister.

SPEAKER_02 (01:11:24):
Oh, okay.
I'm sorry.
No, no, I'm okay.
I think I saw the uh flyer forthe colour.
Kadim.
Yeah.
Yes.
Oh, so you see me the flyer onLinkedIn.
Yep.

SPEAKER_01 (01:11:29):
And so they're going to study the Chef Chet Project
and create a curriculum over sixmonths that will be, I'll be
able to use the create pilotprograms all across the country.
So other people train a trainer.
So other folks will be able totake my curriculum training
model of the Chef Chet Projectand work with system impacted
and disconnected youth acrossthe country.

(01:11:51):
So that's one thing.
I'm working on a new book calledPerception.
Uh because one of theperception, how people perceive
you and how you perceive otherpeople, which is a big issue in
disconnected youth, underservedyouth, inner city youth, because
of how they carry themselves andconduct themselves and why they
have challenges, landingemployment opportunities.

(01:12:12):
You know what I'm saying?
So how do you look?
How do you walk?
How do you sit in a chair?
How do you eat?
How do you hold a fork?
How do you build relationships?
How do you socialize?
And so that's going to be mynext piece.
And uh hopefully you don't know.
And hustle entrepreneur, right?

SPEAKER_02 (01:12:25):
We're gonna do together is what you were
saying.

SPEAKER_01 (01:12:28):
So also, so the the project I'm doing with the study
is called the HustlepreneurProject.
Okay.
And so I like hustlepreneurbecause it's not your
traditional entrepreneur.
And so these are unique skillsets that you only can learn
through lived experience.
You can't teach hustle, youcan't teach grit.

(01:12:49):
You know, like you, you so it'sit's the it's developed and
built on based on thoseexperiences.
And so people always ask me,say, when I came to Vegas, man,
it's gonna be a tough kitchen,Jeff.
I said, Man, I mean, I man, Imanage lifers and killers in a
penitentiary, right?
And so prison, you develop grit,mental toughness, adaptability,
because one day you could be inone cell, another, one prison

(01:13:10):
next.
So all these traits you heareverybody talking about grit and
adaptability, mental toughness,prison prepares you for this on
the outside if you have a shiftin the way that you think.
And so that's that's my focuswith that.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (01:13:25):
Chef Jeff Henderson, man.
You you you a beast, man.

SPEAKER_01 (01:13:29):
I appreciate you sitting down with us, man.
And uh, what's the socialhandles people can reach out to
you?
On Instagram, all social handlesare at Chef Jeff Live.
Okay.
And then and then at the ChefJeff Project, and then of
course, you just Google me,everything comes up right there
as well, too.

SPEAKER_02 (01:13:42):
So Matt, to listen to more of your speeches, man.
So I appreciate you sitting downwith us, man, and check us out
at the biggest super.com, man.
Thank you for your time, man.

SPEAKER_01 (01:13:50):
Appreciate you, man.