Tuxon Speed - Incredible transformation from prison to near seven figure income

I know this is hard parking About You by Right. Honda and right, Toyota out of

Scottsdale. Arizona of course I am your host

DJ finding recording from my home studio.

In Gilbert Arizona coming up on today's show an excellent conversation with a gentleman named Brandon out of Tucson Arizona. You may know him as tuckson

speed txon spelt purposely like that.

Find out. Why in the episode one thing

that's amazing about Brandon and if it wasn't for Chris Crim, another guy in the car Community from down in Tucson also has a YouTube page but if it wasn't for him, then this conversation wouldn't be possible because Brandon has such an amazing story. Amazing Underdog Story that just

needs to be heard. And it's one of those cases

where, unfortunately, he's not the standard.

He is the And but hopefully through hearing of this story, as he talks to other people about it, that becomes a standard, and you'll find out what I mean coming up after this word from four-wheel online J finding here, I want to tell you guys about foil online for over a decade for all online.

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Brandon, you know, known as Tucson's speed on YouTube, Nine line, media. Welcome to Hard parking.

Yeah man. Thanks for having me.

We had been chatting a little bit in the DMZ and stuff like that. So I'm glad that we were finally

able to sit down and kind of go over some things and, and hopefully be able to, you know, use I guess my story or whatever we talk about today as motivation or provide hope for other people, right? So absolutely because we were

introduced by Chris cram who hasn't been on my show He's been on my friend Wes a show. Yeah, I'm always down to talk to

local car people. People that have a story as we

can have talked about before, so you want to get kind of get into that and you're down in Tucson right now.

Yeah, so initially, so I grew up in California, moved out to, I would say, like, the East Valley of Phoenix.

Okay. King like 2000 2001.

When I moved out here, I was a sophomore in high school, but in a rough transition coming from You know growing up going to school with the same people and right.

And then she's got to get dumped into into Arizona and the heat in the middle of summer, but then I would say shoot going clothes on five years ago. Now, I moved out to to Tucson

Arizona and we kind of get into why I made that transition.

But Fires. Yeah.

Okay years man. So yeah we have a lot of stuff

to explore you know it hasn't always been easy for you.

Tell us a little bit about your humble beginning.

Yeah so I kind of want to preface this with the fact that by no means do I have life figured out of course.

And I'm still I'm still working at day by day, just like anybody else, right? Well, I can kind of gloss over

my upbringing, but like I said, grew up in California, right?

I had a, I mean, I grew up in an Area where I think my mom tried to put us in an area of town, where she felt the most comfortable and that was probably a little bit out of her budget. So, it was like, we were living

in a nice area. However, like, it was never a

matter of of having, like money to do things or we didn't have.

We didn't have the nice stuff, like the neighbor kids did and and stuff like that. So that's that's kind of where

things started and And and funnily enough, I'm not and I'll touch with more on this later. But one of my first things that

I did, as a kid was going around to neighbors houses and offering to wash their cars. So I would be able to have some

money on the side so that way I could go like when my friends were going to like their parents would take him to Disneyland and stuff like that in California, their parents would take him to Disneyland and I would have some some extra money to be able and I started to doing that as shoot.

I want to say like younger than 10 years old, so very early.

And I kind of found this entrepreneurial spirit with within me and it's kind of funny because it's almost come first full circle. But like I said, I'll get back

into that. So group of California around 13

years old is when things started to get kind of rough for me 13th birthday. My mom sent me down in the

morning and she was like, Hey, I just want to let you know that Mark who I thought was my dad and a man has been raising me up until I was 13. She She let me know that he

wasn't my real dad and as somebody that was kind of transitioning from being a boy into, you know, growing up going through puberty, all those things that was those, those hard, right? So 13th birthday, she let me

know that. And she also let me know like

hey I met your real dad last night and we're going to go see him this morning. So it was like a super super

awkward thing as a 13 year old that just found out about this information. Meanwhile, it's my birthday.

Like things are supposed to be cool.

I'm finally it. Teenager.

And yeah, so that was a, that was a little bit rough to kind of go through that. And then once Mark, like I said,

the man, that that was Raising me and who my mom was married with, they got a divorce and he found out that that I now had met my real dad. So he kind of, he didn't know.

Yeah, so he didn't want. And after that he was like, he

didn't really want to have anything to do with me.

And that's, that's hard to deal with to, you know, he's my, he's my younger sisters biological father and He was still in her life and kind of put me by the wayside at least.

That's the way that I felt as a 13 year old.

Right. Right.

They got a divorce and my mom started riding a guy that was in prison in California, he gets out of prison and they're instantly like together. He's, he's essentially living at

our house. How old were you when this

happened? So this was still like right

around within the same year, right?

13. 14 years old. So like it was just like a Wind

of events like Sharon after another right?

We decided to make the move to Arizona.

He ended up coming with us and then it was just like a matter of, you know, I felt like as a child, my mom was choosing this other man over her over kids, right?

And it's, and it sucked, right? So that's where, like, the

Rebellion. The really not caring about

anything kind of started. It's a dangerous age.

It's a volatile age. Yeah, man.

For sure. So, so I came out here, move to

move to Phoenix. Again, started sophomore year in

high school out there, up until that point, I did really well in high school or in school, in general freshman.

Year was good. In California, then

transitioning to sophomore year and all this stuff happening over that summer. I didn't, I guess, I just didn't

really care like nothing. Nothing really mattered anymore.

So, I ended up dropping out of high school.

My mom sent me to To a military school on Queen Creek.

I graduated from that. So that was a place where I

stayed for about six months with the.

And I think that their their goal was to find it kind of take these young men that have gone through some traumatic stuff and and kind of bridge the gap and kind of meet them where they are and get them prepared for adulthood, right?

And I think that that was that was something that was good for me. And today I got something.

Yeah, yeah, definitely. How did you feel getting shipped

off to Queen Creek which is right down the street from me?

Just for people can kind of paint the Gog, graphical image, it's all still Arizona, but that's two hours away from, you know, Tucson ish. You know how?

So I wasn't, I wasn't in Tucson yet.

Okay, you're all your in East Valley, right?

Yeah. Yeah, because you're so, it's

still like back then there is nothing else in Queen Creek.

Yet, you know what I mean? So it was one of those.

It was still, it was still like kind of a Barren place right next door. There was a boys school and it.

And to be honest, it was It was just like another parent giving up on me. Right?

That's what I was wondering. Yeah, yeah.

So but funnily enough like even throughout my my like that period of time I was still obsessed with cars.

I very vividly. Remember having like 1987

Cadillac Brougham that I spent hours and hours like polishing the pain of this car was white. It was like perfect to have like

30,000 miles on it. It was great.

But when I graduated The military school I started getting into drinking. I played around with with

cocaine things like that. And it was just kind of a point

to where I didn't really have any direction, you know, like I had developed some discipline. Oh, were you at this one this

time? This was so I graduated in 2005.

So, like 16. 17 years old. Yeah.

Oh yeah. So, like between that time,

period, and the time that I turned 18, like I really didn't have much going on. Like I was doing like, call

center jobs that I would maybe hold on to, for like a month or two Max because I was just, I just wanted to go do whatever I wanted to do, right? I had no sense of

responsibility, nothing. And something else that that has

been a challenge to deal with was was growing up.

I've always been. I've always been the fat kid,

right? I've always been heavier set and

it's clearly you're not now. People don't know, listening to

this, but yeah, you're pretty fit, right?

Right. So that that's, that's been kind

of part of my journey to is figuring out all that stuff.

And so, I'm working these jobs, and one of my, one of my best friends at the time was like, Hey man.

We just joined the military and I was like what?

I'm probably too fat to get in the military so I need to figure all that stuff out. We met with some recruiters he

ended up joining immediately and kind of FIFA me be for me here.

And for I don't know, maybe this is probably what I'm like right at 18. I started working with recruiter

and We would, he would pick me up from my house every single morning and take me to the gym and I lost enough weight to pass maps, and get into the army but much like much.

Like, everything in my life up to that point, I had quit or failed and I followed through into the military.

So I joined the join, the Army as an infantryman finished, basic training, God's my duty Station in Kansas and again, you know, things back at home or going my way.

So my grandmother was I was somebody that that I had developed a close ratio relationship with after the things kind of happen with my mom at an early age and I kind of developed that I wouldn't necessarily call it hatred but there was just like a I didn't feel great about our relationship together. So I kind of leaned into my

grandma being that that mother figure that that she wasn't anymore. Right.

Hmm. So I'm in Kansas and my first

Duty station and my grandma passes away.

And then yeah just kind of started turning back to 20.

Hall taking sleeping pills and yeah things got really bad for me and again like I had just had lost enough weight to get into the military but I was still the fat kid in the Army, right?

So like that's being an infantry unit that's still it's kind of hard to deal with. You're still getting bullied,

you're still getting made fun of all the time.

I had no place being in the shape that I was in.

Trying to perform the job that I was trying to perform, right looking back. I can I can see that but, you

know, hindsight's 20/20 Yeah, so I'm dealing with the, my grandma passing away. I wasn't able to, to be there

for that, which was heartbreaking at the time and I wasn't equipped with the tools to be able to deal with that.

So for me mentally, it just wasn't a good place to be in that was actually the first time that I tried to kill myself.

So was drinking taking sleeping pills and it up texting my mom or calling my mom and saying goodbye and Doing all the stuff.

I don't remember it, but if that's any indication of kind of where my headspace was at, and then, yeah, so she ended up calling my first. Sergeant time got into seeks a

mental help. They put me in a mental hospital

for two weeks, to kind of evaluate me, which was again, like this crazy experience and over the course of the next year. Or so in the Army I ended up

getting processed out still honorable discharge For, for mental health issues. But if I look back on it now, it

was an excuse, right? Is that the Army giving up on

you? Because I mean, you have like

this mental string of people just kind of given up on you, and I can identify with that a lot.

There's some parallels going on here.

But at the time, is it? I'm glad I'm out or, you know,

screw them. They don't want me around

either. What was going on your head?

I would say, I would say it was kind of a mixture of both, right? Like there.

As in any like, Hey we're going to help you get through this.

It's just like hey this is what you have.

This is what's going on and see you.

We had we kind of got nothing for you which sucks and and yeah, so so I got out of the military.

I happen to find a relatively good job at Bank of America.

I was a foreclosure portfolio manager, doing something completely out of the realm that I've ever done before and I tried to step off on the right foot when I came back.

To Phoenix from Kansas. I got an apartment with a buddy.

We ended up getting a house, I was working.

I was being a productive member of society things felt good and then I started seeing a doctor had some back pain going on and of course, being really overweight, all my life, of course, I'll probably have some back pain, the doctor started, prescribing, me Oxycontin. Mmm.

And by no means should I had been prescribed, the level of or volume of I've medication that he was prescribing.

And that just that was the Gateway, right that that opened up everything for me. So Not only was I taking these

these these pills but I also realized that it was a substantial side, hustle that I could sell some of these pills and and be able to make a ton of money to supplement my income that I was working for a Bank of America.

And I just got to the point where I was taking more than I was getting rid of sure. And then my prescription would

run dry. I before the month.

And then I was having to figure out other things because now I'm dependent on this opiate and I get sick when I can't have it, or when I don't have it, and that just that just led me down the probably the darkest path that I think that I'll ever go down, but it went from taking pills orally to try and to smoke them off of tinfoil, mmm, 22, then heroin and then to IV use of heroin. So injecting heroin My into my

arms, right track marks, all that stuff and then it led to methamphetamines and all this stuff and it was just, I couldn't get out of it. All started from opioids in a

mental state, right? Yep.

Right. But it but in reality it's like

and it took me some time to figure out and like when I was in recovery now it's like the substance abuse was just a mask of like the real underlying problem.

So for me, I had to go back and deal with all that stuff.

Right. Because it's I never had a

chance to but yeah. So and what is Rosie was, was

that and then what a couple questions so what was that?

And you know what's going on in the world around you, the people around you. Yeah.

So I think, what, what what that was is, kind of all the stuff that that I brushed on. When I when I when we first

started right all the stuff that happened to me as a kid and and, you know, holding grudges against people and all these things, right? It just, it just tore me apart

and that was my way to cope, right to mask, all those feelings into run away from all my problems.

Because that's the only thing that I knew how to do.

You know, I was never, you know, I never had a positive rail male role. I do in my life, you know, after

you know, 13 years old after Mark and right and, you know, here we are, but to get to your point, you know, after, you know, when I'm starting to use the people that I surrounded myself with were the people that were doing the same thing, right? They're not friends, but we had

a mutual interest in making sure that we could get high on a daily basis. So that's those are the people

that I surrounded myself with it, got to the point where R.

I was trying to produce fake prescriptions so I'm somewhat computer savvy and I use that. I guess in that circumstance to

my advantage and what I would do is I would just get on Photoshop and Photoshop a fake prescription and print it out and take it into Walgreens and they would give me Oxycotin a bunch of them, right? So now I just had, I had this

this way or this hustle too To be able to, to get pills for free, or, you know, whatever it cost for a prescription, and I could turn around and sell them. And then I'll have now have

money to support my heroin addiction.

And, and that's what I did for some time until I got caught as you say. Is that, was that what

ultimately did you in? So that was the first one.

Yeah, so yeah, it gets worse. So I ended up getting arrested

for for forgery for doing that and I ended up doing a year in prison. So out in Florence Arizona, my I

did a year there and during my time there, I did exactly what I was doing on the streets. Still hanging around the wrong

types of people, you know, trying to be a part of the prison. In politics sort of speak, I was

getting high in prison. Still, it's just as readily

available. It is as it is on the streets.

Just costs a little bit more in there so I would do like well I was in prison, I would do like little side hustles and prison trying to make some some commissary so that I could support my Habit in inside prison getting close to my release like towards the end of that year.

I decided to like okay well I should probably get my stuff together before I It out. So I started working out started

to go, to AA meetings, things like that, got clean and wanted to get out and kind of Step Off on the right foot but I didn't have a plan. Right.

I just wanted to do better. Just scary.

It was man. Like like that day is coming.

Life was shit Goin In? Yeah you know what am I gonna do

when I get out. Right.

Yeah. And all along this process, too.

I would say so. So so I was doing pills with my

mom to my mom. My mom is still currently in

active addiction, so she picks me up and I paroled back home, which I knew was not a good idea just because I know my mom and there's there's some codependency there because I know that that she still uses and and blah blah blah, right?

So we get to, we get to the day that I'm getting released.

I get released from prison. She picks me up.

We stopped at Like a Circle K on the way home and she's like, hey, do you want anything? And I was like, sure, you know,

just give me like a Gatorade or something or maybe it was an energy drink, right? And she comes out and she has

like a tall can of Bud Light and she's like, here you deserve this, and then she pulls out to Oxycontin, and she crushes them up on her center console, snorts one, she said, here's the other one for you and at the time, like I didn't have enough clean time under my belt to be able to say no.

Right again, no tools. Just just trying on a hope and a

prayer that I was going to figure it out and be fine.

I mean, I mean, to be fair for people who have never been in situations where I've never gotten anything, they're gonna be like, what the fuck? But to people who have been in

those type of situations, it's hard to say no.

Anyway, right? Yeah.

So, yeah. So, of course, I didn't say no,

and, and I ended up rolling home.

Try to get a job at Goodwill. And now that I have a felony

conviction, I couldn't get a job and they said no, because of my record and that was that was my answer.

That was like oh well if I can't get a job and I'm just going to go back to knowing what I know to do, I know I can make money doing, you know, selling drugs. So that's why I started doing

immediately and it was about. So I got released on December

the 13th. So right around Christmas couple

days later on. Amos some old friends.

So my long-term friend growing up, one that joined the military with me or around the same time. He was home on leave.

So we got together. Went to the bar again, I'm on

parole, so I'm not supposed to be drinking unless those be at bars or anything like that. We meet at the bar and we get

drunk, and I end up getting into a bar fight, and it turns out it was, it was the owner of the bar, so everything of course, was on camera. I think I punched him once in

the face and did some damage and then got thrown out of the bar and then just kind of brush it off.

Like it was a bar fight and continue to do the dirt that I was doing day-to-day. actually, at that same night I met a I met

a girl and She she hadn't used or anything like that before, and I brought I brought her into that life, sort of speak.

Because for me, I think I looked at her As sick as it sounds.

I think I looked at her as a tool to be able to feel my addiction or another resource that I could get money from or something like that, you know, looking back on it now, which which is shitty to say, but that's just the reality is the reality. So we're, you know, we're doing

that and I think maybe six months later I get a knock at the door from Chandler PD was detective.

So I'm a homicide Division and it scared the shit out of me.

Ah, because they were like hey, do you know where we're here?

And I was like, on the side like I have have no idea why you would be. And so I end up going down to

the station with them. They explained to me like, hey

we got you, you know, you assaulted this guy.

The bar, you know, we have everything on video.

We have eyewitnesses all the stuff and I was like, cool, you know, I'm you have me dead to rights and so I got booked into Maricopa. Any jail again.

So this is for the second time and I get put in maximum security jail which is not fun. So it's I don't remember the

exact way to have it but you're locked into a two-man sale for.

I don't know, I want to say like 20 hours of the day and you get like four hour window you can come out and walk around the the unit. So let me ask you this.

So the homicide guys were there just to kind of bring you in.

There was no like her Correct. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But I mean, it's still scared me, right?

It was crazy. So, I mean, I'm in county jail.

So he pressed charges the bar owner direct because you could.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So my charges was aggravated

assault to commit serious. Physical harm which is a f 2

felony and just to put that in reference murder is an F1.

It's a picnic outside at a bar, right?

And then this one of the I saw used to You know, work security at bars. When I first moved to Grand

Rapids, up to assistant manager and the police.

They were just chilling outside the bar, then you fights were going on, people will get thrown out and all they care about is making sure people don't fight on the street.

They just this guy's drunk. This guy's fucked up.

The watch people while, you know, wobble away from the bar.

Right. Well, I think, I think that they

knew kind of a life that I was leading right and Gerda and and look 13 days prior I just got out of prison.

I was still on parole. This guy's got a rap sheet.

Let's just yeah, I'm off the street.

Yeah. So during the during the time

when the fight actually happened and the time that I got arrested with the girl that I was seeing, we're actually doing a lot of like, what you would consider like organized retail theft.

So she worked at a grocery store and I would go in and I would steal a bunch of products and then I would come right back a couple hours later and then I would return.

Turn those products for cash and then I would be able to go buy drugs and Supply us for the day, right?

So we did that, I did that every single day for a long time, for months, and months and months. And this is what's the term for

that retail organized. Retail theft is a serious, as I

think what they call it. Yeah, because, I mean, I'm

considerably older than you 47 and that's been a thing for probably decades. Probably 100 years.

It's just, I just didn't know what the title was, because Well, known people who work someplace, it might look the other way or yes cash out and meet in the back and here's your half. Here's my half interesting.

Yeah, that's what we were doing to supply our drug addiction.

But so I mean I mean, County Jail.

I go to court and the first plea that they give me was 10 to 15 years. So that's a plea agreement.

If I plead guilty to these charges of 10 to 15 years because I have historical priors, I was still on parole.

And this is like an aggravated violent crime essentially.

It's what they were charging me with in the but not the retail theft like that, you know, know it's one of those letters.

Okay. Yeah.

People get away with stuff like that.

Yeah, so it's here, it scared the shit out of me if I'm being honest, like 10 to 15 years. Like, yeah, I was thinking that

I don't know. I don't know if I'll ever be

able to see my mom again, like that, that those are real numbers. That that's a long time, man.

Well, it's crazy because It's not like, I mean, sure, you punched a guy and you got a bar fight.

So but it's not like these are violent crimes we're out there, just I don't know. It's, I'm not saying the justice

system is messed up, obviously, but to not really know you well but to know what your you know what you're up to now.

It's like we could never even had the opportunity.

Yeah. Yeah.

It's it's crazy man and it's crazy.

The majority of people that I meet now and then and if I have an opportunity to share with them my story there, It in utter disbelief, right? Just because of the life that I

lead now which is cool to see but I'm in county jail for about 60 days until I can get enough money.

Hold together to bond myself out.

So my bond was set at twenty-five thousand dollars and in Arizona at the come up with 10% of it and then you can go through a bail, bondsman to get out.

So it took me, it took me about two months to get 2,500 dollars together, bonded out, and was going to try to fight the case because, you know, anything, I could do to get around the 10 to 15-year charge is is good, right?

So I ended up fighting it for like a year and I'm still doing the same stuff, right? So still using every single day

just showing up to court when I have to and my my final plea, the one that I took was two and a half years and that's what I did, right? I took that two-and-a-half-year,

plea, and turn myself in. And the first day that I was

back in County Jail, getting ready to go to prison.

I made a commitment to myself that, that I have to do, whatever, whatever it takes, to make sure that this never happens again. Because if it does there, for

sure, going to hit me with double digits, no matter what, no matter what I do, if I get in trouble again.

Like that. That's it, man.

And I didn't want that to be it, you know, and how long ago was this now that was in like 2016 when I first went in.

So you, you got out when I got out in 2018, but I think such a large component of well, first, you know, prison 100% saved my life 100%. And if it weren't for that

experience, and some of the Other men that I met there.

Then we wouldn't be having this conversation today.

I'd either be doing a life sentence or I'd be dead 100%.

So I get to prison. And again like I know prison,

right? I've been there before.

I've done the typical sentence that everybody else does and just continue to do the crimes that they were doing on the streets and side of the prison. And I knew that that's not how I

wanted to do my time. This time, it started with just

surrounding myself with like-minded people, that That didn't want to make prison a career essentially, and I met a really good Mentor. His name was MC or well, that's

what we just, we call the Mystery Machine Corliss and he was, he was teaching some classes on the art of just how to be a better man. And that's where it all started.

I was taking classes every single day.

I was reading, I started working out, so when I got into prison, I was 335 pounds when I got out shit.

Yeah, yeah man. And I can even send you my some

pictures that will probably remind but but yeah.

So I did this thing while I was incarcerated called men in recovery and it's something that has impacted me till this day and it just it was it was the The Catalyst that help me explore all those childhood traumas, that that I was, I was self-medicating for. So I was able to deal with all

of those work with work, through all those things.

It's understand, you know, that a lot of those things were or not my fault and that it was other people's problems.

I just happened to be, you know, A part of that picture and I don't want to claim any kind of victimhood or anything like that, but that was just, that was just how it is, and I came to terms with that, right? I was able to go through and

forgive, forgive, Mark, the guy. That raised me, I was able to

forgive my mom and deal with all that stuff and so set healthy boundaries for myself, right? So I did that and my focus was

just being one percent better every single day and if I can do that and I Can win every day. Then my hopes was that.

By the time that I get out, I'd be a completely different person and that's exactly what I was. So one day in prison, we were or

somebody was coming in to speak. His name is Danny how and he was

just coming in to share his story and he ran a halfway house here in Tucson and I don't know, like something just spoke to me and said, I need to, I need to stay in Tucson.

I can't go home and I need to go.

Danny's halfway house because his message resonated with me so well. So I get out, I go directly to

his and I get out with two hundred dollars to my name.

No clothes on my back because nothing fit me, mmm?

Right. Yeah.

So I get out with with a couple hundred dollars was able to pay for the first week halfway house and while I was in prison on the yard, there was a company that had a call center on the yard as crazy as it sounds. It was called the hometown hero

project, so they would, they were essentially like a marketing company and they would have inmates call local businesses, real estate agents, things like that.

And try to sell them ad space for like TVs that are up in vfw's and like restaurants and stuff like that.

So they can put your hat on the TV, right?

Yeah. And I didn't work there at all

and a couple of days, or I would say a couple weeks before I got released. I seen the owner walking.

King on the yard of the of the business and I just went up to him. Shot my shop, man.

Like I was like, hey, I know I've never worked for you but you know I will be the best employee that you've ever had.

I will show up on time. I'll do whatever you need me to

do. He's like oh well funny enough I

need I need somebody that can do graphic design.

He's like Ken. Can you do graphic design to

have an experience that and I told him, yes, and I didn't have any experience with that at all. But I knew I was going to figure

it out, so I got out and I had a job, which is huge, so it's making $13 an hour, and we're living at the halfway house, taking the bus to work here in Tucson.

And, you know, if I show up the first day at work, he's like, okay, I need to do this and what I would do is on my bathroom breaks or lunch breaks, I would go and I would watch YouTube videos on how to do what he asked me to do and I would go Implement. That is good.

Yeah, well like I was just I would just self teach myself how to do. I was doing and yeah, it was

just working out, I felt great. I was able to get my license

back. I bought a car.

I became like the house manager, the halfway house.

So I don't have to worry about paying rent.

I just had to make sure that people were doing like their chores and and stuff like that. People were in by curfew and it

was cool, man. It was, it was a it was a nice

setup and it gave me it gave me I like that sense of responsibility that I never had before.

Let's take a quick break and then we'll get to your Redemption story. Yeah, definitely.

So let's get to your Redemption story.

So you're basically running this halfway house.

So yeah. So I'm at this halfway house a

couple days after a couple days after I got out, I actually I met this woman that I'm still with now.

And we're getting married here next month, so, less than a day.

Days. Yeah, man.

And when I first met her, I was brutally honest with who I was and my backstory and and what I'm trying to accomplish now in the person that I am now. And again, like she didn't know

she didn't know the old Brandon. So, I'm grateful that she took

the leap of faith and kind of Hung around for, for where we are now. Because I think that we've both

grown a ton over the past five years and things are great, man.

But I'm working at this marketing company doing the halfway house stuff. And I got to thinking like, man,

I just taught myself how to do this on YouTube.

What else can I do, right? What other since I was so good.

At hustling, the bad stuff in my past life.

Like what can I do for good but still maintain that.

Same like house. The mentality.

So I started watching videos and what I started doing was selling books on Amazon. So after work, I would go to

local thrift stores and I would scan a bunch of books that I could buy for a quarter and then I would turn around and sell them on Amazon for more like 25 30 dollars.

Right. And that's what I was doing for

a long time and it supplement my income and then I got to thinking, you know, I'm working at this, this company.

Making $13 an hour and sure it's a job but not a lot of money, right? It's not a lot of money and I

think that I could probably run the business, I could do what he does, but I could probably do it better right because there just wasn't too much focus on customers like customer satisfaction, things like that and getting like actual results for people in terms of marketing.

So I started researching about starting my own business and there was somebody else that had Had actually worked for the company that I knew from Phoenix.

We were in prison together and he was you got out of prison was on the right path to he's working for the company as a sales guy on the phones out in their Phoenix location when he got out of prison. And you know, I just was like,

hey I think that we could probably do this better.

What if we were to start a business?

I'll do all the back end stuff and At the time we were thinking about doing like websites and ads and things like that for clients and I was like, why don't you just focus on the sales? And I think that we could come

to come to make some decent living for ourselves.

So that's what we did. So I started building this

business while I was working there, kind of just under wraps, not very much, not really talking about it, the business partner ended up getting fired from the company on the, on his way out, he was saying, you know, hey me and Brandon are working on this business and we're going to take over, which is crazy. And the next day I go into work.

And the boss calls me the office.

He's like, hey I gotta let you go.

You know, you're essentially trying to compete with us and he's like I don't think that you're going to be successful and I use that as motivation to make it work.

It didn't work out with the business partners and things happened. He stole some money from me or

so, like from the business account.

So I had to go through the process of getting him off the Yellow Sea, and the bank account.

And that was it. Headache, but we got through it.

So now on my back is up against the wall and I have to make it work right now. I have bills I have rent to pay

of a car if Insurance, all that stuff and that was really I mean it kind of lit a fire in my ass and that's when things got really exciting. So I kind of nailed down exactly

what I want. What I wanted to do in the

marketing business and I decided that I was going to get really good at running Facebook ads for local businesses, and I landed a phone call with a company here in town.

Even they have they even have some trucks out in Phoenix, but the their name is steamy Concepts.

Oh, it's a carpet cleaning company.

I was able to sell them on my services.

Yeah. I was able to sell them on my

services and that's kind of what sparked everything for me.

So he became my biggest Advocate because I was able to crush it for him and explode. His business just with running

Facebook ads for him. And he started recommending me

to two other carpet cleaners, so that would that be kind of became mine each. My Niche was carpet, cleaning

and developing ads for carpet cleaners, specifically Helping them grow their business. And yeah, I got to the point

where I think in 2021, we did. I did just shy of seven figures

by myself. No employees.

And it was crazy, man. Like, I never had that type of

money before, and I didn't know what to do with it.

It kind of led me to how do I, how do I make this money?

Because it just sitting in a bank account, right?

How do I make this money go to work for myself, right?

And I got into, I got, I started doing some things in stock market trading options. Then I jumped pretty head first

into crypto that was right right around the height of the of the bull market in 2020, when covid-19 on and I was able to, to accumulate, you know, a ton of money and be able to have sufficient Capital to jump into this next business venture that that I'm jumping into now currently I ask you a quick question about crypto. Yeah.

Definitely you think Bitcoins ever gonna how is it ever going to recover to that? Incredibly large amount of like

68,000? I mean I personally believe it

will my baby well right? Yeah yeah but I think it will.

I think that like the overall macro environment with what's going on with the US dollar and things like that.

I think then I think that we have some rough times ahead but I think that it will recover And it should be.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean IID risk a lot since the

market is has been on the the down.

Sure. Like it's recovered a little bit

but right. But still I wanted to protect

that. The capital that I was able to

make during that time period and during during this the last couple of years to. So I know that I mentioned, when

I got into prison I was 335 pounds.

I told myself that if I keep the weight off for 5 years, Ears.

Then I would have liked the surgery to remove a lot of the excess skin. So I had that done.

That was a headache to go through and I can only imagine.

Yeah, so I had that done and then during my recovery that surgery, I was like I want to, I want to do an Ironman so if you're if you're not familiar, it's it's an Ironman Triathlon.

Swim Bike Run and I ended up completing an Ironman 70.3 down

in Tempe. In 2021.

So that was, that was a huge thing for me, and that's just part of who I am now. It's just being like setting

these goals for myself and making sure that I can accomplish them. Because in the past, I never set

goals for myself and I had kind of quit on everything that I've done. So now I try to make sure that

not only my setting goals for myself, but I'm checking boxes to and making sure that they're, they're completed.

If you could go back until not even, go back.

But can you just imagine could have Could a 2016 version of Brandon ever even imagined. Killing and Iron Man.

Absolutely not. Yeah I can't even imagine like I

don't want to do a basic charity 5k run.

I think I'm not gonna lie. I did that shit once I'm like

okay that's it. Yeah so yeah.

Definitely not man. Definitely not but but again

that's I still live. Like nothing changed.

When I got out of prison. Hmm, like sure my surroundings

changed but the way that I live my life, I wake up every day at 4:30 I read, you know, I mean, like I do I have a very set routine, and that is what I believe is, allowed me to be successful because it's those little wins day-by-day stacked over a long period of time that I've gotten me to where I am today. That's stability.

Also in your life of your man, fiance.

Yeah. For sure, for sure.

As I don't hear any of that in the past, right?

No. There was never that so her and

I and this is kind of funny. So, We were dating when I was in

the halfway house and I could have just moved in with her.

But for me, I wanted to because I never had any responsibility before, right? I've never been on my own like

I'd always had like roommates and stuff like that or lived with my mom, even even as an adult.

For me, it was a box that I need to check to make sure that I had my own place outside of the halfway house before I committed to living with her. So that's what I did and I ended

up, I ended up renting out this place and it got to the point where I was just, you know, I was just staying overnight with her on the weekends and then it got too.

Every other day. And then finally it was like,

okay well I just move in, so I did and he had a house and funnily enough, it was like literally 5 minutes away from the prism that I was released from.

It's just, it's just kind of crazy having thing.

We're kind of keeps you a bay, huh?

It's like yeah, yeah. Um, talk to me about your just

this detailing company. Yeah.

So I mean, part of owning this marketing company that I have.

Now it's like everything that I do is is from my home.

Like I just it's everything is on the internet, I can work from home, I don't need an office or anything like that, but now that I was financially stable and I was able to purchase some pretty cool cars and stuff like that. That I was running out of garage

space at home and I was like, well what if I just rent an office space? It's added it's like a tax

deduction and then maybe have like an area in the back where I could maybe set up like a wash bay to be able to detail my car because you know here in Arizona it's it's a pain right in the summer. It's hot.

You get water spots all the stuff for sure.

So that's what I wanted to do. And then I was like well what if

I want that and I'm sure that there's other people that would probably want that as well, right?

Just to be able to have a place where they could come take their car indoors, be able to wash themselves have access to like high quality Equipment, all that stuff.

Something that's not going to break the bank because to me that sounds like something that maybe the high rollers are due, but then they wouldn't really wash themselves.

They would just drop it off. Exactly, exactly.

Exactly. So I Sorted.

I got on YouTube and started to see if anybody else was doing anything like it. And I found this company called

the base down Chicago and they had just started.

They were they were there was a guy on YouTube he was documenting the process of them getting their location and I kind of followed along their Journey for a couple months.

And then last year, I finally, read out reached out to him and was like, Hey man, like I'm very interested in doing something similar. Would you be interested in me?

Paying paying you for your time, so we can sit out down on, Zoom call. And I'm, we can just kind of go

over how the experiences. For you so far.

So that's where it started. And You know, I met with him a

couple of times. Super nice guy was totally

totally opened it to sharing how things went for him and he was like, Hey, we're thinking about franchising and I was like, whoa, cool, you know, like, I'm all over that because I'm either going to do it myself or I'm going to do it with somebody that's already. Done it before.

Yes, I flew. I flew out to Chicago, checked

out their location so they have two locations out there.

And it was a great experience man.

And it's exactly what I, what I kind of envisioned in my mind, a place where you can go and it's there's kind of like this sense of camaraderie two, which is two guys.

Bunch of guys hanging out washing their cars and join.

You know, it's like a Cars and Coffee on steroids, if that makes sense. So, you up to Chicago, check

things out. It was like, yeah, man, I'm

definitely open to to franchising and that's kind of where we're at now. I'm actively looking at

properties went and check one out.

Today, got the LLC set up all that stuff.

So just kind of like finalizing some of the, the small details.

But the yeah, maybe because and it's funny to come full circle because like I said in the beginning, this was something that I was doing as a child, you know, those doors right, going door to door, asking people if they want their cars, washed and just washing them in their driveway, learning how to, to take that money that I would make, and invest that back into Like the quote unquote business. This to buy more products to be

able to offer different services and things like that.

So I had things figured out like from an entrepreneur standpoint or I had that Vision or that passion from a young age and they just kind of like rolled into my life as an adult now.

And yeah, man things have it's just so crazy to look back and think of all the stuff that I've I've gone through all the stuff that I've put myself through to now where I'm where I'm at today, you know? I just bought a just we Be my

fiance just bought a house in Vail.

Arizona, I would imagine I consider myself a successful entrepreneur, you know. I've been doing it for a couple

of years now and hope to continue it and build more businesses and bring people along with me for that, that ride to. But yeah man, it's just been

it's been wild. It's been.

It's been crazy. That's fantastic.

I have a few follow-up questions for you first off.

Thank you for sharing that Journey.

Hopefully people find inspiration and they should Yeah, because you know, let's talk about your YouTube page and then I'll get to some more deeper questions about it.

So, tell us about your tux and yeah, it's like talking about earlier. Yeah, yeah.

So like I was explaining to you earlier.

So, since since I was, I've never lived in Tucson up until you know, five years ago, I always called it tuckson.

And so, that's what I, that's what I named the, the YouTube channel, that's my Instagram handle.

So, Tucson's speed to you, XO N speed and it just something that that I started as a kind of a hobby.

And like, look, I've been doing it very long at all, but it's something that I really enjoy doing but not only that, but it's, it's allowed me to continue to learn how to do things. Like, I didn't know how to

record video, you know, being gone away from society for so long like smartphones and everything has progressed.

So crazily, fast and yeah. So yeah, there's two just

YouTube. I'm just kind of like

documenting my build. So right now I have Of a 2023

M3. Mmm.

And I'm just kind of doing a bunch of stuff to the car.

And like I said, documenting that before that, I had a Gen 5 Viper solid. Yeah.

Before that, I had a 2019 ZR1, which is, if you know about Corvettes, it's pretty rare. King of the Hill type car.

Well, yeah, man, and I've just kind of totally immersed myself into the car culture here in Tucson.

It's not like, it is in Phoenix, I'm sure.

But but it's something I enjoy going.

Cars & coffee, every Saturday meeting people getting to know them, getting to hear their story, what they do for a living and all that stuff. And it's it's something that I'm

super passionate about and that's that's why I'm so excited for this next business and building that out, right?

So we're going to the cars. Why do you sound like you've had

these cars and you don't have them very long.

Yeah, you build, you know, I mean I don't know what you would have done or needed to do to that.

Or one. But I know, you know, you built

a shit out of that Viper. You're currently your BMW.

I'm looking at it right now and I'll watch the videos, you know, you building this shit out of this, you know, where do you think that comes from making up for lost time?

I think so, because even as a kid, or as a young adult, I think that those things were so far out of my reach, mmm, that I didn't like it was, it wasn't, it wasn't for me, right?

It was for other people's for successful people and I wasn't that person. Mmm.

Yeah. But I always had a passion for

them. You know what I mean?

Like, I had the lambo posters on the wall as a kid, you know, like even growing up when I moved to I moved to Phoenix was in Ahwatukee. So it's a it's kind of Like a

wealthier neighborhood but it was a still the same thing, right? Like we would struggle to make

ends meet and we're living in a nice part of town.

It was like all my friends that I went to high school with, for, for that year. They drove really, really nice

cars to school. And, and again, it was just like

something that was always out of my reach, but now, that I can be able to afford myself, those types of things, I'm able to lean into that and really enjoy that.

If that Makes sense. It does with regard to have on

the record, you have from a job aspect, you know, how frustrating was it, you know, coming out and I would assume you probably tried to do or applied for a few jobs and they just wouldn't give you a second look, or you already knew at that point. What's the point?

I have to find something else to do.

Yeah, it is man because even even right now as Even where I'm at in life right now. It would be hard for me to get a

job at like Circle K or something like that.

Let alone get like find housing, right?

Like I can't go rent a house from somebody.

I can't go rent an apartment like sure there's there's certain places I can go but those are usually in the the not best areas of town, or drugs and everything, or rampant there.

Anyways, So yeah, I like it that that's kind of a crazy thing but I feel like I feel like I got used to or at least you know this new person does new. Brandon got used to being told

no and I use that as motivation now.

Sure. Can somebody when somebody tells

me. No, it's like okay.

Well watch me exactly. You know what I mean a couple

weeks ago or would say like last month I went back into the federal prison right up the street.

And was able to speak and share my story and that was one of the goals that I set for myself while I was incarcerated.

And I haven't written down on a book, still, that it's also look at occasionally was like within the first five years of my release. I want to come back to prison,

not wearing orange and be able to share my story, but you have to make sure you had success to do it in your fucking killing it right now. Exactly.

Exactly. Because I knew that if I could

get clearance to come back in as a felon, then I would do, I would be doing the right types of things in my life and I'd be on the track, right? So I got to do that.

I've got to go back twice now. So first time I went to the

Maximum Security Federal Prison and spoke to know about 20-25 people. Then I went back a couple weeks

later and went to the medium custody unit and got to speak to about 50 to 60 people. And that was such a, such a cool

experience man. And this is this is exactly why

I reached out and wanted to come on the podcast and just be able to share my story, right? Because I seek that that

fulfillment from doing that and also to I feel like there's a moral obligation to helping other people because if it weren't for the people that helped me along the way, then again like I wouldn't be here. Well there's an interesting

dynamic in our culture and I don't know, I don't think there's any way to necessarily remedy this, but you are one of those people that are leading that charge to hopefully change this at some point. But Getting housing buying cars

getting a job, you know, people see, convicted felon and it's not like if you see a misdemeanor, okay, what was your misdemeanor for? Oh, I broke no, criminal,

mischief. I threw a rock through a window.

Okay, you're cool, right? Or you broke into a car or you,

you know, you stabbed somebody but in a bar fight, right?

But when they see felon it's automatically, this is a bad guys. This is a bad person.

You can't trust this person and I think that's the wall that so many people hit and Probably easy for them to just completely give up and was there a point in your journey where you're like?

Fuck this is it's not going to get better or were you just so determined to turn it around? We're just didn't faze you.

I would say that it been after my second incarceration when I got out and like even now nothing like that will faze me just because like I know like I I believe in myself now sure you know and sure like people are going to have have their opinions and that's fine and sure it does make it harder if you're wanting to succeed as a felon or somebody that has a criminal background, right? But, but at the end of the day,

like those are things that are out of your control, right?

So for me, even now I just focus on the things that I can control, what can I control? I can control the things I do on

a day-to-day basis, I can control what I put in my body, I can control how often I work out all those things right?

I can control how I choose to interact with people with Business. All that stuff.

You can't control if I choose to judge you because you're a felon, former, you know, facts. Yeah.

Which I don't think it's awesome.

Dan. Oh, and there's and there's

there's plenty of people that that operate under those.

Oh there's a lot of people that would say, the majority of people are going to attract judge it before getting an opportunity, even know you. But it's interesting too because

there's a lot of people that either have been too.

Prison or have a family member that's been to prison or is currently incarcerated. So it's not like it's not like

it's something that's completely foreign to a lot of people.

I just think it's easy. It's like the societal Norm to

just turn those people by the wayside if they have a criminal background or something like that.

But and here's the thing is like, the way that I did, my time the second go-around is probably the way that 1% of the total period prison population chooses to do their time, right?

The thing that Here. Most write the thing that we

hear most often is that people people get out of prison, they go back and then they just make a career out of it right there out for a couple months or a couple of years and they go back and their sentences become longer and longer and then, you know, before they do it. They're doing a life sentence on

an installment plan, right? And those are the people that

you hear about, you don't hear about the people because there's so few of us, you don't hear about the people that get out and be successful. Let alone like want to get out

be. Successful and then pay it

forward and speak up about the things that they've been through. So well, I've enjoyed your

story. Hopefully everybody else has as

well. How can we get a hold of you?

Or we just follow tuckson toxin spelt to you.

XO n is on purpose because when you try to say the word Tucson, that's exactly how it's phonetically, you know, looks like toxin. So yeah, man, you could shoot me

on Instagram at oxen underscore speed You know, I'm happy to chop it up. Talk with anybody on YouTube,

same thing, tux and speed. And yeah, man, I'm also going to

be documenting trying to document the Journey of starting this business to and kind of building it because it's completely different from some from anything that I've ever done right. Like, I'm sure I've built a

business but it's all online, right?

Building a brick and mortar company is a completely different monster of challenges that that I'm going to have to tackle blood but I'm here for a man.

I'm ready. I see a book in your future.

Yeah. Yeah, you know, it's funny

because somebody just asked me about this the the other day is like why don't you write a book? And I would love to I think at

least recently like the online business space.

There's so many different types of like business coaches or life, coaches, who don't really do this stuff.

Like that's their main source of income is that there are coach.

So, like I want to shy away from that as much as possible.

And I want to, like, sure if there if there becomes a time in my life, where I can set a The time to write a book then that's something that I would love to do.

But still, I want my focus to be on building.

The things that I'm passionate about and just giving back value to people without expecting anything in return.

If that makes sense. Thus Brandon.

Thanks for your time. Yeah man.

Thank you so much for having me and we will meet one day.

I need to come down to Tucson Cars and Coffee.

I'm about nine years late on that.

Yeah, I need to come down to Phoenix because I hear they're all the rage man. So much bigger out there and

like here you see like the same couple cars every weekend, right? It's just it is what it is but

but yeah. Cool man.

We'll talk. Okay.

Thank you so much. Thanks Brandon.

One of make Brandon for joining. So we had that conversation

probably 45 days or so ago. He has since got married, just

like he said, which is awesome. He's also picked up a second

vehicle, so now he has to BMW is on his channel.

And again, that's Tucson's speed on YouTube, really good.

Content has a lot of passion. I wish I had that much passion

for my YouTube. I just don't have the time or

the pits really the passion right now for guy like that.

You can't, I can't really say something to a guy like that and saying, I don't have the time because I got is On it, you'll not only need to transform the so physically, but his whole mindset and a guy like that 100 miles an hour in the right direction, endless possibilities, and I don't think we see enough of those type of redemption stories because that's what that is, is a Redemption story.

We're so quick to judge people. And this, I'm not trying to come

across all preachy, but I think we're really quick to judge people when we find out, they've had a little controversy in their past and I meant when I said, when you, when you meet somebody or you hear about, Out someone secondhand like oh well he's been to prison or she's been to prison.

They're a felon there. This there that it's like okay

well they're automatically a bad person and sometimes not necessarily bad people. There are bad people out there.

There's a lot of bad people who've never been to prison right? To be fair, she give them a

chance. Sometimes people just need a

second chance. Sometimes a third chance of does

it for chance, but your first interaction with them, your second interaction with them. You know, you have to take that

as a are When people show you who they are believe them.

And so a lot of the people early in his life probably believed he was that person because at that time, he was at person.

But now he's the guy that you just heard on my podcast.

He's the guy that you watch on social media.

He's a guy who came out of prison.

I worked extra hard and has built through advertising.

Almost a seven-figure salary or seven-figure worth of income and he's starting other things as well.

So the sky's the limit for a guy like that and I'm I'm happy that I was able to have him on the show and I look forward to talking to him. Again, let me know what you

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Tuxon Speed - Incredible transformation from prison to near seven figure income

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