If This Episode Doesn’t Motivate You, Nothing Will  ## Metadata - Author: [[The Mel Robbins Podcast]] - Full Title: If This Episode Doesn’t Motivate You, Nothing Will - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/3c98bedb-ae0f-48b0-a5a4-fae1db735df7 ## Document Notes ## Highlights - **More People Are Mentally Incarcerated** - Many people are "incarcerated mentally" by fear, shame, and others' opinions which prevents them from living fully. - Wallace Peoples calls this the biggest barrier and frames his story as a freedom story, not a prison story. Transcript: Mel Robbins His name is Wallace Peoples, but you may know him as Wallow. Wallow spent 25 years in prison, but this is not a prison story. This is a freedom story. See, when Wallow walked out of prison, he had $1,000, a used iPhone, and a promise to make his life count. Today, he's a media powerhouse with millions of views across every social media platform every single week. He's a truth teller, a man who's built an empire from a blueprint he wrote when he was behind bars. And he says something I'll never forget and neither will you. There's more people incarcerated mentally in the free world than there are in prison. And after you hear what he has to say, you're going to realize he's right. If you've ever wondered why you feel stuck and how to finally get moving, this conversation is going to shift you. This is real talk about how to eliminate self-doubt, stop waiting, and start becoming the person you know you're meant to be. ([Time 0:00:52](https://share.snipd.com/snip/0f64a3ca-60f4-4ee3-ac69-58672ee80d77)) - **Stop Giving Power To Others' Opinions** - Stop making problems for yourself by giving power to others' thoughts, words, and opinions. - Mind your business and cut the "fuck it" button to stop worrying about what others think. Transcript: Wallace Peoples (Wallo) Going to stop caring about things that don't matter and you're going to stop making problems for yourself. That's the most important thing. Stop making problems for yourself. Nobody make problems for us. We make problems for itself. If you don't like me, all right, or if I'm talking to the viewer, if somebody don't like you, that's none of your business, number one. Number two, what they say about you, that's none of your business. That's their business. They own them thoughts. They own everything that they say. They got ownership of that. But what we do is we make problems when we get into their business. You minding their business now. Oh, I don't like Mel. Mel is not this. Mel, fake. She don't really help nobody. Mel, why are you worrying about their business, Mel? Mind your business. That's not yours. That belong to them. The thoughts belong to them. Stop giving power to other people, words, ideas, thoughts, feelings. Why do they like? A lot of times, Mel, a lot of people don't dislike you. ([Time 0:06:58](https://share.snipd.com/snip/873b6b12-4553-4ebc-8a6d-80966058d987)) - **How Street Glory Led To Long Sentences** - Wallace recounts growing up in Philadelphia where criminal success looked glamorous to kids and pulled him into crime. - He describes arrests from age 11 leading to a 19.5–52 year sentence certified as an adult. Transcript: Wallace Peoples (Wallo) What happened? So what happened is, grew up great family. Rest in peace with my brother Steve, my mom, Jackie, extraordinary woman. You know, that's why I got a lot of my crazy stuff from my grandma I'm loving. Strong woman, the strongest person I know, my brother Jalau. I grew up, my pop, Wallace Roundtree, my step-pop, Hip. I had some great people around me growing up, great family, different size. My grandma, Ora, rest in peace. Grew up in the streets of Philadelphia, inner cities of America. I wanted to be down. And because when I grew up and where I grew up at in the ghetto, the only person that got the most attention was the person that was still in the American dream, the drug dealer or the criminal. Because he had the fancy cars, he had the jewelry. He dealt with the most beautifulest woman in the neighborhood. So it's like the movie. So as me sitting on the step as a kid, when I see the car pull up, the nice music blasting out, the Mercedes Benz, the jewelry. And I'm like, I'm sitting there and I'm like, hold up. You mean to tell me? I noticed Ms. Johnson, Ms. Brown and Ms. Green, the older ladies, they spoke to that guy getting out of the Benz. They ain't speak to Mr. Carl walking down the street as a plumber. I said, I got to go out there and steal the American dream. That's the only people like America only respect the successful criminals. They love them. That's why so many movies made about them. So I'm sitting there. I'm like, yo, I got to be down. I was smart enough to know right from wrong. My grandmoms, she taught me a lot. But I got into the crime life because I wanted things that I wasn't willing to work for because I'm a kid. June 30th of 1990, I get arrested for armed robbery. Philadelphia. I get, and I'll never forget when Nanny came in. Shout out to Nanny. She's 91 now. She's like 91, but she moved around like she 31. Send my Uncle Tommy to come get me the next week. I got locked up again for armed robbery. I kept getting locked up. So I wound up spending five years in juvenile. June 30th, 1990. I was 11 for like seven days. Something like that. I wound up, kept going back. They sentenced me that year to a year and I wound up spending five years in juvenile. So by the time I turned 17, I got locked up for two armed robberies, two firearm violations. Got sentenced to a total of 19 and a half to 52 years in prison. They certify me as an adult. They said, no, you're not a kid no more. You're good with crime. You know how to do crime. Mel Robbins How mad were your grandmothers ([Time 0:11:43](https://share.snipd.com/snip/34811160-0702-4c81-a402-8cbc862972f0)) - **Be In 'University Mode' Wherever You Are** - Treat confinement as a classroom: study, read, and absorb mentors through media to expand your mind. - Wallace used TV, books, and commercials in prison to learn marketing and model lives he wanted. Transcript: Mel Robbins What was that and what were you writing in it? Wallace Peoples (Wallo) The Book of Life is something I wrote in every day and I used to write. The Book of Life was really important because I believe people don't write stuff down. Right. And that was it. That was a major thing for me. But in the process of me writing stuff down. What were you writing down? What do you mean your people don't write down? I wish I had to bring it. I wrote everything down. The states I wanted to go to. I wrote down the different peanut buttons and jelly I wanted when I got out. Stories I wanted to go to. Movies I wanted to watch. Songs I wanted to collect in my MP3. I wrote down everything. Places I wanted to go. If I've seen something in a magazine, I'll write it down. Whatever. I will always write all types of stuff down. Mel Robbins You know, one of the things that I love about you is that your story proves that all of the excuses you have, I don't have this, I don't have that. I mean, you're in a freaking prison cell for God's sakes. You still have years on your sentence. And you had this incredible way that you thought about being in jail after that moment. Can you explain that breakthrough to us? Wallace Peoples (Wallo) I used to tell people, I'm not in jail, I'm in Yale. I'm not in prison, I'm in Princeton. I'm not in the state pen, I'm in Penn State. Right. What does that mean? That mean that I'm not just sitting around in here. I'm in here to educate myself. It's not their job to educate me. It's their job to house me. And at this time, what's so crazy about it, my mind was clicking so much because in the state prisons of Pennsylvania, you can buy a TV off commissary. Whereas though you get some certain TV channels, cable channels, whatever, you pay for it. My cellmates, they used to always say, why do you always turn the TV? Because I'm turning the TV all the time. Mel Robbins You mean flipping channels? Yeah. Okay. Wallace Peoples (Wallo) He's like, come on. I was addicted to commercials. I was addicted to advertising and marketing because I always say, hold up, man. Big Mac never looked like that when I went to McDonald's. It's be sloppy. You don't be like that. Something ain't right. Then I realized, oh, they outsourced that to advertising agencies. I start learning about marketing. Damn, why is when they got the car commercial, they got a black person doing it, Latino person doing it, Asian person based off the channel. Oh, what is marketing? Oh, I ran into a book called Damn Good Advice by George Lois. Oh, I'm reading all this guerrilla market. I'm starting learning about marketing. I started learning about advertisement. I'm learning about, oh, they paying all this money for that. So now I'm starting, I'm thinking more. I'm thinking, I'm just looking at that. I'm looking at that. And then one day as I'm changing the channel, I come across this guy, right? One of my mentors, right? When I come across this skinny guy, man, skinny white guy, right? And I'm like, what's going on? I look, he here, the next day he here, he just always eating food. His name was Anthony Bourdain, my mentor. So when I see him, I'm like, hold up. Anthony Bourdain taught me in a cell that the world is your playground, go play. He taught me that the world is bigger than your neighborhood. He taught me that, while though, they're waiting for you. Go out there and connect with your people. It's people, places, and things that's waiting for your arrival with a sign on it. When I seen Anthony Bourdain, Parts Unknown, No Reservations, The Layover, I was like, this guy used to get high. He got his life together. He was a cook in New York City. He had a New York Times bestseller. He didn't let hard times beat him up. And his name, Anthony Bourdain? I watched every show religiously. I never stopped watching him because Anthony Bourdain, he gave me a passport while I was sitting in the cell. He used to talk to me through the TV show. And I was like, damn, because this will happen. When you come from where I come from, if you're not willing to be exposed to other cultures and other ideas, sometimes you'll miss out on a mentor like Anthony Bourdain based upon his Color of a scanner. We work so hard to find so much, there's so many differences in ourselves when it's so easy to find something that connect us. He connected us because he was a teacher and he was able to say he connected with me because it was like, I didn't know that I was looking for him in our family. In life, the greatest moments is going to happen when you're not prepared for them, when you're not looking for them. And Ant came through. I used to call him Ant. Ant came through and he just, he was like smoking a cigarette, drinking a hot tea, eating the craziest stuff. But it was like, wow, little, go out there and live. It's waiting for you. It was waiting for me. I ain't give up. I could have overdosed. I ain't give up in New York City. I ain't give up. I ain't give up. I ain't give up. And what he did, he showed me that I'm going to get out and I'm going to create what Anthony Bourdain created. But I'm going to show people that's where I'm from. So as I'm looking at Anthony, I'm reading books, stuff on George Lewis. I'm reading all this type of stuff. And I'm in there in this university mode. And that was the whole thing. I'm not in prison. I'm in Princeton. I felt as though like, because I felt as though the information that I could learn here, I could go out there and make his money, make as much money as somebody that's in Ivy League right Now. ([Time 0:21:59](https://share.snipd.com/snip/d193c357-0580-43ad-b140-1acd2c93c8ea)) - **Anthony Bourdain Gave Him A Passport** - Anthony Bourdain's shows became Wallace's mentor and gave him a 'passport' to imagine a life beyond his neighborhood. - That media mentorship helped him believe travel and a broader life were possible. Transcript: Wallace Peoples (Wallo) One of my mentors, right? When I come across this skinny guy, man, skinny white guy, right? And I'm like, what's going on? I look, he here, the next day he here, he just always eating food. His name was Anthony Bourdain, my mentor. So when I see him, I'm like, hold up. Anthony Bourdain taught me in a cell that the world is your playground, go play. He taught me that the world is bigger than your neighborhood. He taught me that, while though, they're waiting for you. Go out there and connect with your people. It's people, places, and things that's waiting for your arrival with a sign on it. When I seen Anthony Bourdain, Parts Unknown, No Reservations, The Layover, I was like, this guy used to get high. He got his life together. He was a cook in New York City. He had a New York Times bestseller. He didn't let hard times beat him up. And his name, Anthony Bourdain? I watched every show religiously. I never stopped watching him because Anthony Bourdain, he gave me a passport while I was sitting in the cell. ([Time 0:24:43](https://share.snipd.com/snip/04232687-8a17-4125-aa79-f95a9671a652)) - **Social Media Narrows Independent Thought** - Social media and connected culture have created mass imitation, shrinking independent thought. - Wallace argues this digital homogenization traps people mentally by making them emulate rather than think for themselves. Transcript: Wallace Peoples (Wallo) But what does that mean to you? And how do you get yourself into university mode? Because you know what's happened? Tell me. When people used to come to prison, they fresh off the streets, I used to interrogate them. I used to interrogate them about what life is on the streets in the free world because I had it. I never wanted to be the person that was stuck. A lot of people, when your family member go to prison, they're stuck in a time that they was incarcerated. So I didn't want to be stuck there. So in order for me not to be stuck there, everybody that would come to prison, I wouldn't interrogate them. Sometime I would have had a, I would have had a CO on the block. The ones that was, you know, I had them keep my cell as a transit cell. So somebody come and they not be in there for long, for like a week or two. Then I get somebody else because I used to love to stay up and just ask people questions about the free world. So this kid told me about Google in the yard. So we walk in the yard. He said, yeah, there's this thing called Google, man. I can find anything about anybody. I said, yeah, that's decent. He said, I can find stuff out about you. I looked at him. I said, man, you think I'm stupid? I've been in jail, but I'm not dumb. I ain't even on the planet Earth no more. How you going to find? Me? I'm in here. Nobody know nothing about me. So I typed my name in here, Wildest People. I'm like, all this stuff popped up. I dropped the phone. I'm like, damn, the feds on me, the CIA, they're watching me. I didn't know what was going on because I never seen nothing like this. I've been in prison all this time. This is 2000, like 2013, 12, something like that. I don't even know. So I'm like, once I got that, I set up the social media. And that's where the 267 come from, Wallow 267. 267 was my prison number, DG267. And when I go to set up the Instagram, somebody had Wallow, so I had to add the 267. Even though that's the Philly zip code, but it also was my number. I mean, it's Philly area code. But whatever the case may be, when I went on social media and I started seeing people in life, I'm like, hold up. Everybody was locked into an idea of what they think they should be based off of somebody else. And I was just seeing different cities. I just seen a bunch of people doing the same thing. And I'm like, it wasn't like that when I was growing up. Mel, if you're going to school in Boston, you ain't know what they was doing in Duke. If you went to Boston College, you ain't know what they was doing in Duke. You ain't know what, because we didn't have no social media to connect this. So now we're living in a world where everybody emulating everybody. Everybody got the same hairstyle. They wear the same clothes. They wear, nobody, like, you got to think about it. Some of these big people, they would have never got this stuff. They would have never had this influence back in the day because if you ain't get on Oprah or MTV, nobody knew about you. Correct. So now I'm like, hold up. Don't nobody got no independent thought no more. So I'm like, oh, there's more people out there in prison. ([Time 0:32:40](https://share.snipd.com/snip/0ae6960c-96f4-40e2-89c4-6631c44dab65)) - **Cut Toxic People With Ruthless Clarity** - Be ruthless internally: cut toxic people and habits that sabotage your growth. - Use decisive language and action to remove the people who consistently harm or block you. Transcript: Wallace Peoples (Wallo) Look at me. I'm talking to you personally. Okay. You know how you say, let them, fuck them. Okay. Fuck them. You got to be violent with it. And when I say violent in the inside, this violence got to take place, not to anybody else. Okay. But you got to be ruthless within to say, you know what? I'm tired of you taking advantage of me. I'm tired of you being in my life. A lot of people is out here sleeping with the enemy. Their biggest hater is somebody that's laying next to them. Their biggest hater is one of their friends. Their biggest hater is one of their parents. Their biggest hater is one of their siblings. You got to be violent about it. Let them fuck them. Fuck them. Say it, Mel. Fuck them. Say it louder, Mel. Fuck them. Fuck. On the count of three, we're going to say it together. One, two, three. Fuck them. You got to be like that. We're not going to be here forever, Mel. We got to leave. ([Time 0:40:08](https://share.snipd.com/snip/f76e8fe0-49b0-4f52-a85d-e9f74aca7c3d)) - **You're Your Biggest Obstacle** - Nobody will stop you from starting except you; act now and stop self-sabotaging. - Use the tools in your pocket and stop talking yourself out of your ideas. Transcript: Wallace Peoples (Wallo) Nobody is going to get in your fucking way, but you. Because what happened is, this is how it be. You be going to do your thing, right? You be going to do your thing. And this is what happened. You jump right in front of yourself and say, uh-uh, you ain't going nowhere. You ain't going to be great. No, you can't do it. You're your biggest fucking hater. You. You always talk yourself out of ideas. Soon as you say, here it is. I put the idea down. I'm ready to do it. No, you're not. Then you sit back down. I'm sorry. It's so fucking true. You sit back down. You do all this research. You got, listen, we walking around with computers in our pockets. When I grew up, I didn't know nobody in the neighborhood that had a fucking computer, man. You only see that when you go downtown and you go into one of them buildings and the computer was big as this table back then. You're walking around with a computer in your pocket. You mean to tell me you can ask a phone or anything? Back in the day, we had to go to a library to figure out something. And some books that we had. First, we had to find a book of the information we was looking for and hope they told us what we was looking for. Nobody is going to stop you but you. ([Time 0:53:31](https://share.snipd.com/snip/d718ceee-c203-4946-984f-d3e02420d7db)) - **Strangers Build Scale And Wealth** - Strangers, not familiar peers, scale your impact and create wealth by expanding audience beyond your circle. - Wallace points out that the unknown masses, not friends, make artists and entrepreneurs rich. Transcript: Wallace Peoples (Wallo) Energy is very important, right? You got different levels of energy. You got positive energy, you got negative energy. Then you just got floating energy. Energy that you don't know what the fuck's going on. You don't know what you want to do energy. Mel Robbins I think there's a lot of people with that. Wallace Peoples (Wallo) Yeah, but because a lot of times, like, the reality is, it's sad, and the sad truth is, some people just don't got the energy to change. Change is uncomfortable because you got to cut that switch on. You got to be willing to be talked about. I did a post, and I said on the post, I said, strangers make you rich. Strangers make you rich. Stop worrying about the people that you know. Stop worrying about the people you went to school with. Stop worrying about the people that you went to college with. Strangers make you rich. Strangers made Bon Jovi, bitch. It made Guns N' Roses rich. Michael Jackson rich. Michael Jordan rich. Just think if only people that was Michael Jordan fans was the 15, 20 people, 30 people, 100 people we know. That's not enough. Stop worrying about, oh, they don't support me. They don't want me. Oh, man. Shut up. Strangers make you rich. When you go to Mel's show, there's people you never knew. They didn't go to college with you, Mel. Mm-mm. They don't know you. They wasn't your childhood friends, Mel. Nope. No, no, no. No, no. ([Time 0:56:24](https://share.snipd.com/snip/b29f0fb3-6e8a-475d-879d-e4f750877d1f)) - **Practice The Life You Want Now** - Live inside the life you want before you have it by practicing the habits and imagination of that life. - Wallace prepared for wealth and status by visiting luxury places and rehearsing the lifestyle. Transcript: Wallace Peoples (Wallo) I was a millionaire before I was a millionaire. Let me tell you something. Mel Robbins What does that mean? You were a millionaire before you were a millionaire. Wallace Peoples (Wallo) I was a millionaire before I was a millionaire, and I was preparing for my bank account. I was preparing for everything to come because, let me tell you something, Mel, I'm living in Philadelphia. I'm living in nanny middle room, right? So I'm living in the middle room. I used to get on the subway. I had my backpack on. Or sometime I walk from Bro and Allegheny all the way to downtown, Center City, Philadelphia. Whatever. It depends. I got my earphones on. I'm listening to Sanford. I'm jamming. I'm singing to myself. I'm laughing. People thought I was crazy because I used to dance all through the streets. Sometimes I throw Bruce Springsteen on Streets of Philadelphia. Come on. He's singing. I'm walking through the streets. I feel like I'm in the movie, but I'm feeling like Bruce. I'm like, Bruce, I'm like, yeah, the boss is singing to me. He's singing. He's my, he, listen, you know how when you, every time I come out the house sometimes, like a couple of times a week, I had that Streets of Philadelphia playing by the boss. And I'm like, yeah, he's doing my theme music. It's like, I come out, you're not like superhero. It's like Streets of Philadelphia. Everyone needs to walk on, man. So I'm walking. I'm like, yeah. So I go downtown, right? And I'm telling you, you got to be bold. I was cocky with my imagination. And I'm going to tell you about how me going to prison from 17 to 37, it fortified my imagination. So I came back out with imagination like I was 17. But let me tell you about my imagination. I used to go downtown Philadelphia, the Four Seasons, one of the best hotels in the city, right? I'd go down there, right? I'd go to the bar, right? Just give me a hot tea and it's a gold cup with lemon and honey. Because I'm like, it's on the top floor. I can overlook the city. I'm the man right now. You got to know you're the man and you got to, listen, you got to know that you him. You got to know that you her before you become there, before you arrive. So I go there, get my hot tea. Right after there, I leave. I go see one of these luxury condos downtown. I'll go look at, because once I realize it, hold up, I could go check out an apartment, luxury condo. I could go test drive a car and I ain't got to have no money in my account like that. Oh, it's on. So I'm just preparing myself for the lifestyle and I'm going to live. Like I'm preparing myself. So I go in there and I never forget, I put my backpack down. I go in the condo, lady be sure. Yeah. I'll be sitting back. So what do you think I should put here? Should I put my painting on the wall? Should I put my art here? Should I put the couch there? They're like, yeah, see, what I would do is, and I'm just like, yeah. And I'm taking my time. I'm not in no rush because I'm filling it in. I'm like, I would like to see the, let me see the rooftop. Go on the rooftop, smell the air, overlook the city. It's nice. Do y'all got a jacuzzi in there? Pool? Okay. Let me check that out. Oh, yeah. Lead air. I go to the dealership. BMW, Benz, whatever. I'll be like, test drive? Yeah, let me test drive that. I'm talking about I want to test drive the most expensive car. Get in that John driver. Seatbelt on. Hook the Bluetooth up because I need to play my music. Throw my theme music on. Coming through. Window down. Hand hanging. I'm like, this is nice. I get used to this. He's like, what you thinking about it? I said, I'm thinking, man, let me go a couple more blocks. They in there, they on their phone. They don't even care. I'm, I'm just prepping. I'm getting ready, right? I'm getting ready for the life that's waiting. You got to be ready for the life. You got to live inside the life that you want before you get the life. ([Time 0:58:33](https://share.snipd.com/snip/bd35242a-5642-4f6e-90a3-b732e388989f)) - **Built A Business By Giving Away Proof** - Wallace built a marketing business by offering free proof-of-concept videos for local businesses and then charging once results showed. - His cousin's referral led to the first paid $300 gig and the business scaled from there. Transcript: Wallace Peoples (Wallo) See, I used to always, like when I walked the streets of Philadelphia, right. Cause I was doing these videos, right. When I first got out, I used to do these marketing videos cause I felt as though I was a marketer, right. I felt as though I was an ad agency by myself. So I would go to people's business. I'd be like, damn, I go to Mel's, I go to Mel's steak shop. I'd be like, Mel, how you doing? She'd be like, Hey, what's going on? I'd be like, my name is Wallow. I want to do a commercial for you. You're like, what? What type of commercial you want to do? Well, Mel, you got a steak shop. You know what I mean? I want to just let people know about your steak shop. She'd be like, what you mean? I'd be like, Mel, do you understand that there's so many people living their everyday life that people 15 blocks away might don't even know you're here. What I need you to do, I need you to make a real nice steak, Mel. When you make this steak, I want it to be dripping the onions, the powder. I want it to look great. And I want you to stand right by me. And just the only thing I'm going to give you, I mean, you're going to do this minute video, but I'm going to give you to say something at the end, but I got you. And this is how it will go. What's up, everybody? I'm Wild O2's Exceptional. I'm right here at Mel's Steaks. Let me tell you something. If you want to get a steak, I'm talking about Mel's is the place to eat the steak. I'm talking about this is a different type of steak. This steak right here, I had your tongue breakdance. I'm talking about your tongue to be doing moves you didn't even know your tongue could do. This is the best steak in the city. I'm telling you, we got the peppers. We got the onions. You might don't like peppers and onions, so it won't be on there. Well, you want American cheese? You want whiz cheese? What type of cheese you want? I'm telling you, these steaks is a different type of steaks. You're going to tell somebody about these steaks. You're going to run home about these steaks. You might even go running the Maritimes. And after you eat this steak. This is the type of steak. Hey, Mel, tell them what type of steaks you got. Tell them what you got going on. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. So then I leave. Next week, you'll call me and be like, Wala, thank you so much. You can eat here at any time. Because I'm coming to do it free. See, I had to get my proof of concept. So I do a bunch of places free to get my proof of concept. And then what you do is somebody will call you, hit you on social media. And they'll be like, yo, you might know I got a friend. He got a laundry mat, Wallo. He want to pay you. Right? So I'm like, oh, man. Because the first time that I really got paid for a commercial is when my cousin Gil called me. Gil called me. He's like, yo, man, somebody want to pay you $300. I said, man, I do them drawings for free. He said, you did enough for free, man. What's he talking about? Gil, like, you did enough for free. They got $300. I'm like, damn, yeah, you right. So I went and got it. And then I started charging, but whatever. But it was like, I knew that people need to advertise. And I knew that everybody don't see everything. So I became that dude. And I just filled my page up with examples. Like people don't understand whatever you're doing, go get examples. ([Time 1:04:11](https://share.snipd.com/snip/70db383a-a246-4d6a-84ef-e85b74538a62)) - **TEDx Talk Changed His Reach** - Wallace delivered multiple TEDx talks — including forgiving his brother's killer — and those talks led to bookings and deep audience impact. - The TEDx stages amplified his message and helped build his platform beyond monetary gains. Transcript: Wallace Peoples (Wallo) I got three. I made out of three. I got TEDx's. I got, I forgive my brother's killer. That was my first Ted Talk. And I spoke about me forgiving my brother's killer. And then the second one was fuck it, bud. And I forget it. But when I went down there and I did that, that was one of the most powerful things that I did. I forgave my brother's killer because to this day, it wasn't about the money I made. The impact was more powerful than the money I made from people booking me and all that because I had people in airports, restaurants. They get up and say, man, I really needed to see that video. ([Time 1:07:40](https://share.snipd.com/snip/8d69e2da-945d-47ce-9bbd-390c42240a51)) - **Forgiveness Frees Emotional Energy** - Forgiveness freed Wallace from carrying energy-sapping anger and let him celebrate his brother's life. - He frames forgiveness as a logical, liberating choice that preserves memory and energy for living. Transcript: Wallace Peoples (Wallo) And my God forgive. One thing that I realized is that everybody wants forgiveness, but who is willing to forgive? And it wasn't about no ego or none of that. Because I got to always think of a logic as I got older. And I'm like, what is the logical? What I'm going to do? Go out there and try to do something to somebody. And somebody do something to me. And they lose me. Or they lose them. And I. So it was the whole thing was just to sit back and I had time. I still had years ago in prison where I was like, I got to figure out a way to turn the cycle of violence around in my community and show by example of what forgiveness look like and what living For somebody look like. Because if the cycle, the cycle of crime, the cycle of murder is too normalized where I come from, but it's normalized based off of ego. Where I come from, a lot of people die based off of ego, based off of words, based off of emotions. Um i said i didn't want that to be me and i wanted to be example not for it wasn't a natural thought i want to be example for other people but i was just like i got to be example to my family and I got to be example to these kids and they got a man that they could count on um because my brother wasn't able to fulfill that because his life was taken so it was like that there had me more Like, okay. And I had to share that. And it was so funny. He said, you only got like 18 minutes. I'm like, all right, cool. Because nobody else is going to share that. I didn't want to, once I seen what the TEDx says, I said, oh man, I got this. How do you forgive though? Mel Robbins How did you actually get to the point where you no longer carry that anger with you, like that you're freed from it? Like, what does forgiveness even mean to you? Forgiveness to me personally. Yeah. Wallace Peoples (Wallo) If my condolence to anybody out there that lost somebody, right? Anybody out there, if you lost somebody through my condolence to you. And I can only, I know the feeling. So I know what you go through. For me personally, forgiveness helped me breathe because I wanted to celebrate my brother. I celebrate my brother by living for him, being happy, and like knowing who he was and having the memory of him and not holding on to this dark part of this pain and this anger of the person That did something to my brother. When I got there, my back was straight. I didn't have to, um, I was able to breathe. It was like, damn, I got, I, I, I, it was like, I'm not carrying that around with me. It wasn't that be it. It takes a lot of energy to carry anger around for somebody to where as though the anger can supersede the love and the memories that you have for your loved ones. Because it's so much to carry. You carry and it could be unbearable. So now you're in a way, and I'm not saying that anybody had to choose this route, but in a way you're neglecting ([Time 1:09:50](https://share.snipd.com/snip/56724068-1ad3-4eb7-8def-971c7c080612)) - **Say Yes To You, No To Them** - Say yes to yourself and no to the people who force you to be someone else. - The discipline of setting boundaries creates the freedom to grow and fulfill your purpose. Transcript: Wallace Peoples (Wallo) To you and no to them. You see where you at? This you. This you up here. You see where they at? The discipline of saying no and the freedom that follows. Yes to you. We live in this world where as though everybody is looking for somebody to come and save them. Everybody's looking for a reason to be upset with somebody when they don't get their way. It's not perfect. But for so long, you continuously choose others and you say yes to others, but you say no to you. When did you want to start saying yes to you and no to them? It's not about them no more. It's about you. You got to start choosing you and letting them go in order to grow, in order to glow, in order to go. That's what this is about. It's not about when you, when you think about life, it's not even about like trying to appease nobody no more. How old is we, man? Like what the, like we living in the world where it's though even a person at 18 and 19, they know better. Like we got too much information. Like you know better. You got, listen, yes to you, no to them. ([Time 1:18:30](https://share.snipd.com/snip/ae3aaa3d-a17d-44d4-b084-486adfd3bc7f))