A Story of Redemption, Prison, Trauma, With Sonny Von Cleveland

00:00:08:08 – 00:00:27:17

Nick McGowan

Hello and welcome to The Mindset and Self-mastery Show. I’m your host, Nick McGowan. And on this show, my guests and I unpack the stories that shape us, the lives that we lead on our path to self-mastery. So let’s not wait any longer. Let the games begin.

00:00:30:17 – 00:00:32:18

Nick McGowan

Hey, Sonny, welcome to the show. Man How are you doing?

00:00:32:21 – 00:00:36:12

Sonny Von Cleveland

What up, Nick? Good, man. Thank you for having me. It’s a pleasure to be here.

00:00:36:21 – 00:00:54:06

Nick McGowan

Absolutely. I’m excited, man. We’ve been kind of shooting the shit for a couple of minutes for we hit record here, and I think we’re gonna have a great conversation, but I know you’ve also got some deep shit for us to get into. So I feel like this one’s going to be one of those ah heartstring ones, but has a redemptive ending to it.

00:00:54:07 – 00:01:08:00

Nick McGowan

So I’m not going to give this whole thing away, but I know we’re in for a good one, so. Hey, man, why don’t you give us some context? What do you do for a living? And tell us one thing that most people don’t know about you that’s maybe a little odd or bizarre. Oh, well.

00:01:08:14 – 00:01:26:20

Sonny Von Cleveland

So as for what I do, I’m kind of a hybrid. I just live my life. I don’t really have one specific thing that I do. Like I try new shit all the time, but I’m a content creator, entertainer, motivational speaker, mindset coach and entrepreneur.

00:01:28:22 – 00:01:58:19

Sonny Von Cleveland

Currently, I’m in the process of opening a cat café in Palm Springs. I figured we’d try that out. We’re setting up a franchised cat café that we’re we’re hoping to that that that’s going to take off and do well, which we know it will, because we manifest success in our life. And I’ve gotten into photography lately, so I have a couple of photoshoots lined up tonight and tomorrow night and to go do some photo shoots in a couple of venues here in Palm Springs.

00:01:59:02 – 00:02:20:12

Sonny Von Cleveland

You know, I’ve really been into that lately. Content creator on YouTube. I do reactions I love not so much anymore, but I did for a long time, did reactions on YouTube. So I have a YouTube channel as well, a twitch a twitch gaming as well. Oh, and I’m also a metal vocalist so have haven’t been doing much of that lately, but still a metal vocalist.

00:02:20:13 – 00:02:47:13

Sonny Von Cleveland

Once a metal vocalist, always a metal vocalist and something people might not know about me. It’s a little weird. I am a freaking diehard dandy nerd. I love Dungeons and Dragons, man. Like, hey, I haven’t been able to play it because I can’t find any other indie nerds around. But I’m a diehard fantasy nut. I love everything from the Lord of the Rings type genre and Big Daddy Nut, so not a lot of people know that.

00:02:48:08 – 00:02:53:11

Sonny Von Cleveland

I hope that I didn’t just lose cool points for that though. Cool people played Dungeons and Dragons.

00:02:54:02 – 00:03:11:17

Nick McGowan

I think there’s a there’s a level of being real and honest with yourself that some people don’t ever get to. Like, I even think like with games like that where they’re like, Oh no, no, that was for nerds. Because somebody told me that when I was a little kid and I never experienced it. And it’s like, Well, and how do you know?

00:03:11:17 – 00:03:19:01

Nick McGowan

No, like, I don’t know. But I really like that show Heroes or I’m really into something else, sci fi. And you’re like, Then what the fuck? Look at the translation here.

00:03:19:13 – 00:03:27:12

Sonny Von Cleveland

Do you know what? 95% of people live to impress other fucking people? And that’s 99% of 95% of people’s problem.

00:03:27:23 – 00:03:44:04

Nick McGowan

Oh, yeah, man. And before we go down that path, because I think that could be a solid path, we get down. We need to go back to you’re talking about doing, let’s say, coaching and content creating, but then you throw in a cat cafe.

00:03:45:07 – 00:04:17:05

Sonny Von Cleveland

Right, just out of nowhere. Right. So I mean, it kind of ties into the entire story of this mad, crazy train that is my life, but my wife that are my wife now and I we moved to Palm Springs about about a year ago last June, and we were both entrepreneurial spirits. And we have a the innate desire to hustle and we don’t ever want to work for anybody else ever again.

00:04:17:20 – 00:04:43:16

Sonny Von Cleveland

Again, I don’t I’m not here for other people’s use. And so we decided on a business. We’re like, we need to start a business and what do we want to do? And we actually toyed with the idea of a jewelry store first cause we’re big travelers. So we do a lot of traveling and we were like, we could go and design jewelry and other cool little things that based on where we’ve gone, but we both have this any desire to help people.

00:04:43:16 – 00:05:00:20

Sonny Von Cleveland

We want to give back to the world and leave a legacy. And there’s really nothing in a jewelry store that you can help the world with. So we quickly scrapped that idea after looking at a couple of places and options, and we were sitting on the porch of the Airbnb that we were staying at and she just came out with it.

00:05:00:20 – 00:05:18:12

Sonny Von Cleveland

She’s like, I visited a cat cafe once in Virginia. Maybe we should do a cat cafe. Fuck, yes, let’s do a cat cafe. That’d be sweet. I went to barista school down in San Diego to learn how to be a barista. And we just put the ball in motion. Was like, You know what? Let’s just put one foot in front of the other and do it.

00:05:18:12 – 00:05:23:04

Sonny Von Cleveland

And it’s become a thing now. Frisky business Cat Cafe. It’s pretty bad ass.

00:05:24:17 – 00:05:32:01

Nick McGowan

And that is cool. So what does that look like? Forgive me if I sound completely ignorant, but is it a bunch of cats and literally a cafe?

00:05:33:02 – 00:05:53:22

Sonny Von Cleveland

Pretty much. It’s it’s kind of a trending business. It started in Japan. Oh, there’s 125 registered cat cafes in the United States, 12 in California alone. And it’s a coffee shop. It’s like a coffee house that has cats in it for adoption. So that we’re so we’re partnered with the Palm Springs Animal Shelter. They’ll provide kittens for us.

00:05:54:17 – 00:06:22:04

Sonny Von Cleveland

And it’s so ours in particular is a mid-century modern lounge that’s kind of on the classier side. My wife’s from England, so she loves, you know, the posh side of things and it’s mid-century modern and there will be about 12 cats in there at any one time. So you come in and you can get a coffee and a pastry or a biscuit or a donut or a sandwich and then go into the lounge and just hang out with cats and cuddle with some cats and play with them.

00:06:22:04 – 00:06:25:11

Sonny Von Cleveland

And hopefully you fall in love with one of them and adopt it and take it home.

00:06:26:01 – 00:06:27:19

Nick McGowan

That is a pretty genius idea.

00:06:28:05 – 00:06:50:01

Sonny Von Cleveland

That’s the concept. Yeah, it’s pretty dope. Yeah, I liked it from the moment she’s talked about it. And so we went and visited several of them here in California, went out to L.A. Diego and checked out some and really cool concepts. I mean, because we’re big animal lovers too. And, you know, most people avoid like animal shelters because it tugs at your heart strings and you feel like shit.

00:06:50:01 – 00:07:04:14

Sonny Von Cleveland

And if you’re like us, you’ll end up leaving with several animals and stuff. And so this helps with the visibility of the cats so that they’ll get seen more because people don’t have a problem coming into a cat cafe. So we’re just trying to help get these cats adopted out and just do something cool for the world, you know?

00:07:05:04 – 00:07:20:15

Nick McGowan

That’s awesome, man. I’ll be honest with you. I’m not really a cat person. I’m not one of those people that hates them, but I’m more of a dog person. And when I look at that sort of stuff and somebody says a cat cafe, my brain just goes to the very surface level of it where yeah, at the core there’s cats and it’s a cafe.

00:07:20:15 – 00:07:37:13

Nick McGowan

But the fact that you’re able to actually kind of elevate where people aren’t going to, they’re not going to go, I know I do the same thing when I had two dogs years ago that we got them from a rescue, but we didn’t want to go and see all the dogs because I almost felt like we were going to take them all home.

00:07:37:13 – 00:07:39:17

Nick McGowan

We were going to have to fix this problem.

00:07:39:21 – 00:07:46:13

Sonny Von Cleveland

It tugs at your heartstrings when you see a dog sitting there like, Please love me. You’re like, Oh my God, oh yeah.

00:07:46:13 – 00:08:01:02

Nick McGowan

I want them all. But being able to walk in and get a coffee and hang out and if somebody connects with that animal and they’re able to take that home, I mean, in some ways that could be such a magical day for that person to go. I got coffee and I got this beloved animal at this point.

00:08:01:04 – 00:08:30:02

Sonny Von Cleveland

And, you know, and and most of them won’t adopt the cat, right? So it’s still because there’s a huge demographic of people that can’t have them but still love them like there’s lots of cat lovers. Cat videos are the number one thing viewed on YouTube. So there’s a lot of people that love cats and so, you know, like the elderly community that comes in, they’ll come in and just to hang out with the cat, they have no plans of adopting it, but they just want to come in and cuddle with the cat and hang out with it and go home.

00:08:30:02 – 00:08:36:19

Sonny Von Cleveland

So it’s just a laid back atmosphere that people can, you know, vibe with an animal and and enjoy a wonderful cup of coffee.

00:08:37:05 – 00:08:42:22

Nick McGowan

Can you kind of charge them rent at that point? Like, look, you can sit here, have one cup of coffee for $25 or whatever.

00:08:43:08 – 00:09:04:09

Sonny Von Cleveland

But yeah, it’s so it’s a $22 fee and you get a 45 minute session so you can go in and buy your caffeine in 45 minutes in the in the lounge with the cats. So and then we do events after normal hours, we’re doing like drag bingo and we have other cool shows that are lined up like she’s doing a a mad cat or Tea Party because she’s from England and she loves tea.

00:09:04:09 – 00:09:16:13

Sonny Von Cleveland

So people come in and enjoy tea with the cats and then, you know, got a book club once a month or people come in and do the book club thing with cats running around. And I think everything is just kind of more laid back and cool with cats involved, right?

00:09:17:10 – 00:09:18:14

Nick McGowan

You got to be a cool cat. I guess.

00:09:18:19 – 00:09:20:18

Sonny Von Cleveland

I see what you did there, Nick. I like it.

00:09:21:18 – 00:09:37:16

Nick McGowan

That jokes for the win. So let’s take a little bit of a step back because this is the you now and the thing that’s happening now that you’re passionate about, you’re excited about. But honestly, dude, let’s kind of get into some of the deep, crazy shit that you’ve been through. The floor is yours, my friend. Where would you like to start?

00:09:38:05 – 00:10:01:20

Sonny Von Cleveland

Oh, so, I mean, kind of got to start. Start? I’m from a small town in Michigan, out in the boondocks, raised with a bunch of rednecks. And at age five, I started getting molested by my uncle. And from the age of five until I was ten, I was molested by four dudes, one of my mom’s boyfriends and a couple of friends of the family.

00:10:01:20 – 00:10:21:08

Sonny Von Cleveland

And it became commonplace for me, right? Like I felt like almost like this is just normal life, how this is supposed to happen. A five year old can’t really process that kind of shit that’s going on in his mind when he’s sick bastards doing stuff to you, right? So it’s and so that caused me to have a serious distrust in, in men, especially in, in authority figures.

00:10:22:04 – 00:10:42:14

Sonny Von Cleveland

So when I was seven years old, I got charged and convicted of my first felony. I broke into a church and stole some shit. And because it’s small town politics and my mom was like this big anti-government protestor, the local authorities hated her and they took it out on us. And I was charged and convicted of felony in 1988.

00:10:42:14 – 00:11:01:00

Sonny Von Cleveland

Seven years old. And I fell in love with the attention from the police when they arrested me, because these are men that didn’t want to touch my dick. They just they were like, you know, be a good kid. Discipline. Discipline. Do you want to, you know, be a good kid, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, Well, damn, that’s a dad figure.

00:11:01:06 – 00:11:17:01

Sonny Von Cleveland

And so I didn’t have a father. And I really liked that attention. And so I continued to break the law because that’s the only way that these guys would come around. Right? I didn’t know how to get a cop to come around. So if I go to break something or if I break into something or if I steal something, the cops come.

00:11:17:06 – 00:11:38:08

Sonny Von Cleveland

It’s like, Oh, hey, there they are. And so I fell in love to the attention from the judge. And I’m a I’m an entertainer by nature, right? Like I’m I’m a very outgoing social type person. And I love to interact and people love to entertain. I love to sing, love to make people laugh. But when you’re being abused like that, it you become reclusive, right?

00:11:38:08 – 00:11:57:10

Sonny Von Cleveland

So there’s this dichotomy that’s going on inside of for my little five, six, seven year old mind where I want to be extroverted, but I’m being abused and so I’m being introverted and at the same time, I’m very compassionate and empathetic even towards the predators that are abusing me. I don’t want them to get in trouble. I don’t want them to get hurt.

00:11:57:10 – 00:12:15:16

Sonny Von Cleveland

I don’t want the other family members to get hurt. So I’m just like, What the fuck do I do? I don’t know what to do. And so my mother was a big she was speaking to music. She was a singer songwriter and played guitar. And she had this amazing, eclectic collection of music that were tapes in this tape box.

00:12:15:16 – 00:12:42:00

Sonny Von Cleveland

Everything from Elton John to Led Zeppelin to Meatloaf to White Snake to poisoned George Street and everything in between. Right. And that was my go to I would hide in the closet whenever her boyfriends were around or, you know, the guys that were abusing me in my own just for a defense mechanism, I would just go to the closet, put the headphones on and just lose myself in music.

00:12:42:00 – 00:13:09:21

Sonny Von Cleveland

And and again, I was a big fan of of like Labyrinth and Secrets from the NIMH and Lord of the Rings cartoons and all these things. And and I would go in there and I would listen to music and fantasize about my own friends because I was a very extroverted person that was forced to be introverted. And so I created this own world inside this little closet of my own where I had friends and, you know, I adventures and they got the music and this kind of just turned me into this.

00:13:10:08 – 00:13:31:22

Sonny Von Cleveland

This a very imaginative child that had this big, vast imagination. And but I also on the outside continued to just get into trouble constantly. And they never took me away. They never put me in any foster homes or anything. I don’t know if my mom blew the judge or whatever to keep me out of there, but whatever it was, they never took me away.

00:13:31:23 – 00:13:56:19

Sonny Von Cleveland

It was just always probation, probation, probation, which didn’t teach me anything. So so by the time I’m 13, I now have, you know, ten felonies on my record. Now I’m getting into drugs and alcohol and sex. And so when I turned 16, I got sent to prison. I stole some money from my high school safe and they bound me over to adult court.

00:13:56:19 – 00:14:12:12

Sonny Von Cleveland

Judge was sick of me, was like, You know what? I’m done with you. Bound me over to adult court and they put me in county jail for six months. And so while I’m in there, all these other charges came up. And my mom, she took off. She she was living in a on state land in a tent with her then boyfriend.

00:14:13:07 – 00:14:30:21

Sonny Von Cleveland

She came into the county jail. The day I got sentenced, it was like, well, you’re kind of on your own kid. I love you, but I’m out. And she left for South Carolina with her boyfriend. So I was just kind of left to do this whole battle on my own. And then they just started coming at all these charges, and I didn’t know much about legal shit.

00:14:30:21 – 00:14:54:20

Sonny Von Cleveland

I never really paid attention to it. I just always listened to the lawyer and in my lawyer was like, Well, all right, just plead guilty to this and this and this and next thing you know, you got 2 to 5 years, and I don’t know what that means, but now you’re going to prison. So a week later I’m on a bus and I find myself in in quarantine in Ionia, Michigan, called Riverside, which is weird.

00:14:55:12 – 00:15:12:01

Sonny Von Cleveland

Riverside is the name of the quarantine. In the first week I was in there, I was raped by two dudes. Like they ran into my cell and they had their way with me for about 15 minutes. And it was at that point in my life that I snapped and I was like, You know what? I’m never going to be a victim ever again.

00:15:12:01 – 00:15:33:09

Sonny Von Cleveland

I don’t give a shit what I have to do. I will become the most vile, vicious, violent motherfucker you’ve ever seen. I will never be victimized again. And I did. I went out and I stabbed both of those assholes for what they did, and I stopped caring like I was no longer afraid of physical pain. Because, I mean, what are you going to do to me that hasn’t already been done?

00:15:34:07 – 00:15:55:13

Sonny Von Cleveland

And I just kind of disconnected emotionally, like I just didn’t care about anything anymore. And then they wrote me out to a level four prison, and I immediately fell in with the gangs. Right? I went there in the gangbangers saw me in. I mean, I took every lesson that I saw. As soon as I hit the yard, I found the biggest motherfucker, went over there and just started teeing off on a big bang, bang, bang, bang.

00:15:55:13 – 00:16:12:09

Sonny Von Cleveland

And he beat my ask and he’s like, What are you doing, man? Why are you doing it? You don’t have a gun. I’m like, I got to earn my respect. And he’s like, Man, it’s a different time, right? This is not 1979. This is 1998. Like, you don’t have to do that anymore. You just be a respectful dude.

00:16:12:09 – 00:16:30:06

Sonny Von Cleveland

I don’t want to hear shit he had to say anyway, but the gang loved it. So the you know, the gang came and approached me and I fell in love with their gang culture because it’s like brotherhood and family. And, you know, I never really had that. So it’s like, oh, man, I love that. And I knew that the only way that they were going to continue that affection towards me is if I was this violent dude.

00:16:30:06 – 00:16:51:04

Sonny Von Cleveland

So I was, I mean, I, I just it was a very bad train that I was on and I ended up doing five and a half years and it was just all full of gangbanging. It was so bad. And then when I was 21 years old in 2002, they just opened the door like, Oh yeah, your time, stud, you can go.

00:16:52:10 – 00:17:16:05

Sonny Von Cleveland

No probation or parole, no oversight, just your time’s done. Well, what did you think I was going to do? Here I am, 21 years old. I have no fear. I’m fully ingratiated into gang culture. And you just opened the door and unleashed me on small town Michigan. What do you think I want to do? Like I robbed a dude the first day I was out, I went to a gas station and robbed him because I don’t know what the hell I’m going to do.

00:17:16:10 – 00:17:35:06

Sonny Von Cleveland

I don’t have any money. You give me $75 and three condoms at $75 lasted an hour. I know what I’m going to do. So I immediately got into robbing people and I was just it was a train wreck, right? Like I didn’t give a shit about anybody, anything. I felt the world had owed me something. I felt somehow the world fucked me over.

00:17:35:11 – 00:17:56:03

Sonny Von Cleveland

And you owe me for everything that I’ve been through my life. So I decided to take it out on everybody. And I justified it in my own mind by saying. By telling myself that I was karma’s enforcer. Right? If something bad happens to you, it’s because karma karma’s a bitch. And so if karma is happening to you, you’ve done something bad in your life to deserve it.

00:17:56:03 – 00:18:15:01

Sonny Von Cleveland

And I’m just the conduit that the karma is using to reap its it’s punishment on you. And I use that in my mind to justify the shit that I was doing and it was bad. I got two girls pregnant. I was only out for 22 months. I got two girls pregnant on opposite sides of the country. One in Michigan, one in Arizona.

00:18:15:19 – 00:18:37:23

Sonny Von Cleveland

And in August of 2002, I came back to Michigan and I started doing a home invasion ring with a buddy of mine just to collect shit and make some money and started robbing drug dealers. And that became a very lucrative thing to rob a drug dealer. Right. And I’m thinking to myself, well, what do you can do? You’re going to call the cops, tell him I stole your drugs, right?

00:18:38:08 – 00:19:02:03

Sonny Von Cleveland

But yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s the thing. You can’t do that either. And in September 2nd, 2000, for a day, I was a very bad and violent altercation because one of the guys that I was going to rob turns out to be a pedophile. And so I had some internal aggression, apparently. And, you know, I unleashed on him pretty badly.

00:19:02:03 – 00:19:30:05

Sonny Von Cleveland

And I got arrested for that that day. And yeah, I plead to a bunch of plea deals, got the violent felony dismissed because of the plea agreement and pled to 20 felonies and got 12 years. And so back to prison, I go 23 years old, 24, and now I got 12 years, 35 felonies. And I’m like, Jesus, what am I doing with my life?

00:19:30:05 – 00:19:53:19

Sonny Von Cleveland

I’m just fucking up, right? And so I go back to prison. In the first six years of that bit or four years of that bit were pretty much the same. Phil Right back into the gang thing. It was comfortable for me. You know, I fell in there. I knew I had a reputation anyway. And and then in 2008, my brother, I only had one sibling, decided that he was going to have an affair with the mother of my oldest son.

00:19:54:02 – 00:20:12:11

Sonny Von Cleveland

And at that time, that was like the only thing that I really cared about in my life was my oldest son and his mother. And, you know, she would bring the baby up to see me all the time while I’m incarcerated. And then that stopped, like and that something snapped in me on that, too. I’m thinking, you know, because loyalty is a big thing to me.

00:20:12:11 – 00:20:30:14

Sonny Von Cleveland

And my my brother and I had done a lot of stuff in that little two years that I was out and I just I snapped. And I heard a guy really badly and they gave me five years in the hole and I’m thinking, shit. So I get to the hole and an across the hall from me is this Muslim dude.

00:20:30:14 – 00:20:46:20

Sonny Von Cleveland

They Mallory Bey who just starts calling over to me every day like, Hey, white boy, hey white boy, go talk to me bad. And and for the first week, I just I cussed this dude out every day, like, shut the fuck up, man. I don’t know why you’re talking to me. We are not on the same team. I don’t fucking like you.

00:20:46:20 – 00:21:06:09

Sonny Von Cleveland

I will stab you in the face if I see you shut the fuck up talking to me and he never stopped every day. Come talk to me, man, come talk to me. So I got loneliness kicks in after about a week or so and I go up by what, dude? What? What do you want to talk about? And I’ll never forget the two things he said to me.

00:21:06:20 – 00:21:25:23

Sonny Von Cleveland

Why are you so angry? And what are you passionate about in your life? And it just it blew me away that he asked me those two questions, and I had no answer for it. Right. I’m like, What? And he’s like, Come holler at me when you when you, when you have an answer. And I said, and I thought about it for a couple of days and I just I got no answer for it.

00:21:25:23 – 00:21:49:22

Sonny Von Cleveland

Right? I don’t know what I’m passionate about in my life and I can hate everything and everybody. So that’s why I’m so angry. And over the course of the next 19 months, this man changed my life. He introduced me to philosophy and stoicism and self-help and self-healing and caring and love and empathy and compassion, and helped me to feel every emotion that you can.

00:21:49:22 – 00:22:09:20

Sonny Von Cleveland

I’ve replayed my life over and over and over and analyzed every moment of hurt and happiness and joy and love and anger. And something started to change in me. I started to think like life is not over, right? I’m only at that point like 27 years old. Like, life’s not over. I’m going to get out of here when I’m 35.

00:22:09:20 – 00:22:25:17

Sonny Von Cleveland

There’s plenty of life left to live. And and I had to define a passion. I knew that, like, I loved music. Music was a passion for me. I started singing all the time in the hall, and it became a thing people would call down and make requests. A man sing that one song, that that Superman song, what is that?

00:22:26:09 – 00:22:46:23

Sonny Von Cleveland

And so I would sing songs and and I started writing essays in and one of the tests that he had me do was write out my own obituary, right, and take it very seriously. And so I did. And I highly recommend anybody to do this. Sit down and take it seriously. Right. Write your own obituary from the perspective of the five people you care about the most.

00:22:47:08 – 00:23:15:07

Sonny Von Cleveland

And it literally will give you a blueprint to what you want in life. And so after doing that, I started reading every book I could get my hands on. John C Maxwell All the leaderships series personality plus everything I could read. Philosophy, The Art of War, The 48 Laws of Power The Prince by Machiavelli. I just started reading all these things and it really helped me to see, like, everything that happened in my life was like, manifestation, right?

00:23:15:07 – 00:23:35:13

Sonny Von Cleveland

Like, you manifest everything in life. If you think the day is going to suck, it’s going to suck. If you think that something bad is going to happen, eventually, it’s going to happen. Right. And on the flip side of that, if you if you know that something good is going to happen, it will. If you think that you’re going to succeed and you believe in your heart that you’re going to succeed, you will.

00:23:36:00 – 00:23:56:16

Sonny Von Cleveland

Here I am facing five years in the hall and I’m telling myself I’m not doing all five years. I’m not doing all five of this. I started to write essays more and more, started sending it out to the activities coordinator in the facility and she started coming down and saying, These are really good. And they came back with this program called Thinking for a Change, a new program.

00:23:56:16 – 00:24:15:15

Sonny Von Cleveland

They were instituting in the facility and said, We’d like you to read over the course material and if you’re comfortable, we would like you to teach a class. And if you teach that class and you do well, we’ll let you out of the whole early manifestation. I said I wasn’t going to do all five years in this hole and then here’s here’s an avenue out of here.

00:24:15:21 – 00:24:37:08

Sonny Von Cleveland

So I started studying the material boom. And it shows you how to think before you act. And so it was a really good program. I liked it and I signed up to to teach the class. And of course, I didn’t see the curveball coming, but they put me in protective custody to teach the class. And I don’t know if you know anything about prison, but protective custody is the absolute worst place to be in prison.

00:24:37:21 – 00:25:00:17

Sonny Von Cleveland

It is full of the slimy as pieces of shit known to man, and I saw that as a challenge. Like if I can teach these guys to think better and 80% of them are pedophiles. And we all know that I have this this any hatred for pedophiles. If I can teach them to think differently, then I have mastered myself.

00:25:01:07 – 00:25:20:01

Sonny Von Cleveland

And so I did. I went in there and I started teaching these guys how to think, how to stop and think before you act, before you do anything, think, stop and think. And I had a wonderful success rate with the class, worked really well and they let me out of the hold early. I did at 19 months out of the five years they let me out.

00:25:20:14 – 00:25:47:07

Sonny Von Cleveland

And that’s when the challenges really started. Because when they let me out of the hall, here comes the gang, right? Gangs like, Oh, my boy, you’re out. Now, at this point, I had sworn off violence. I had sworn off gangbanging, all of it, because I’m a different person. I’m seeing the world through the lens of love and kindness now, you know, I know that if I put out love and kindness in everything that I see, that’s what I’m going to get back.

00:25:47:08 – 00:26:07:23

Sonny Von Cleveland

It’s going to do. You know, you’ve learned these wonderful things. When you read about stoicism and philosophy, it shows you how love and life, love and kindness are the key to everything. We’re all born from love, right? And at some point, something just happened in your life that derailed you off that path, and you got it. And we spend the rest of our life trying to get back to it.

00:26:08:12 – 00:26:37:06

Sonny Von Cleveland

And and so I have this wonderful sense of detachment. My wife calls me the accidental Buddhist. One of Buddha is one of the things that I’ve never really studied. But I have a wonderful sense of detachment. I can literally let anything go, anything that hurts. I just let it go, right? Like it doesn’t bother me anymore. Like I can talk to my uncle and just high five you like you actually help me grow like the shit that you did to me is actually created me who I am right now.

00:26:38:02 – 00:26:53:10

Sonny Von Cleveland

So I get out of the hole, the gang comes back and I’m like, Hey, listen, I’m done. I’m over it. And they don’t like that. They’re like, No, no, no, you can’t just quit. And it’s like, Well, I am quitting. I’m not going to do it and you can’t force me. Nobody in this earth can force me to do anything I don’t want to do.

00:26:54:15 – 00:27:09:04

Sonny Von Cleveland

And so that led to them jumping me and beating the shit out of me all the time. And it got to the point where I said, You know what? I have to draw a line in the sand. I’m aware of the environment that I’m in. If you touch me one more time, I am going to seriously fuck you up.

00:27:10:03 – 00:27:32:13

Sonny Von Cleveland

Stop touching me, just leave me the fuck alone. And they didn’t. And they jumped me one more time in the bathroom. And I, I decided at that point I was going to make an exception. And I went up to the leader of the gang on the yard at that point and I seriously fucked him up bad and they left me alone after that.

00:27:32:13 – 00:27:59:08

Sonny Von Cleveland

They never touched me again. And I mean, to this day, that’s the one thing that I still kind of I have no regrets because I think everything that happens in life happens for experiential purposes. And it puts us in the position that we are currently in. But that’s the one thing that I was mad, more mad at myself because I made a vow to not be violent anymore and I saw no other way out.

00:27:59:21 – 00:28:22:10

Sonny Von Cleveland

You know, and and so I did it. But I spent the rest of my time teaching other men the things that I had learned. We started doing focus groups and study groups on the yard, and I got into yoga and started I mean, I got 30 criminals on the yard doing downward facing dog and shit, right? And it’s actually funny, but I still stay in touch with a nice group of them.

00:28:22:10 – 00:28:43:07

Sonny Von Cleveland

They’re all successful people, business owners, homeowners, and I’ve kind of mentored them. I’m getting out. And so that kind of pushed me towards wanting to be a motivational speaker and a mindset coach. Like, I want to I want to continue to help people because this life that I live now, this mindset that I’m in now, the self mastery is it’s amazing, right?

00:28:43:09 – 00:29:02:23

Sonny Von Cleveland

Like I can find happiness anywhere. You can put me in a can filled with a bunch of killers and I could be happy. And, you know, Viktor Frankl wrote the book In Search for Meaning, which this is a guy that’s in the Holocaust. You know, he’s in Auschwitz, and he still managed to smile and help other people smile.

00:29:03:09 – 00:29:20:14

Sonny Von Cleveland

And it’s one of the most profound books that I ever read. And and I related to that heavily. And I want to help people because just because I’m in prison is it everybody can be in prison, right? You can be in prison even if you’re out here. Like people get stuck in their own minds and depression and sadness and it’s a form of a prison.

00:29:21:11 – 00:29:46:14

Sonny Von Cleveland

And I want to teach people how to get out of that, how you can overcome that, because there’s nothing in this world, nothing in here that you can’t overcome, that you can’t conquer with this. Right. It’s your biggest enemy, but it’s your biggest asset as well. And so I got out in August of 2016 and, you know, things took a whole different course because I was now able to put this stuff into motion now.

00:29:46:15 – 00:29:59:19

Sonny Von Cleveland

And it wasn’t it wasn’t easy. All right. Like, I’ve still had a lot of ups and downs that took place, but that’s the next chapter of my life on this crazy little train you want me to keep going on?

00:30:00:08 – 00:30:18:05

Nick McGowan

I hope that your train keeps going. Yes, I. I find it super interesting that you pull in Viktor Frankl and man’s search for meaning. If the audience if you haven’t read that book, you need to pause this, go find it and start reading it right now. Like I allow you to stop listening to the episode right now. Go read it.

00:30:18:14 – 00:30:42:04

Nick McGowan

That is one of those life changing books which I find that I’ve actually read it at a point where it was right before I was getting a divorce and after I finished that book, that was one of those moments where I was like, This is the path that I’m going on. And I found that different people I talked to about that book are like, I’ve read it at a pivotal point or right before that pivotal point, and that was the thing that kind of pushed you over.

00:30:42:08 – 00:31:06:19

Nick McGowan

So for you to say that that was kind of similar in that sense, let’s break that down a little bit, because if you think about where Viktor was, he was a psychologist and working normal life and helping and serving and then boom, next thing you know, he’s on a fucking train and the shit that he went through and even getting those points, because you’ve brought this up a couple of times where you had those break points where you’re like, I just snapped.

00:31:06:19 – 00:31:22:15

Nick McGowan

You snapped when you were a little kid and you went into the closet, you snapped on a couple people when you were older and then figured, Oh fuck, I can get people to pay attention to me, I’m going to snap more. But those big snaps, those things happen when you’re actually forced to get that thing done because your character comes out.

00:31:23:03 – 00:31:52:22

Nick McGowan

So when it’s crazy that you’ve been through what you’ve been through, but you’re not one of those people that has taken it and kind of continue down that path of negativity. And there are people that live a life where they’re in that sort of prison, like you’re talking about their 9 to 5 or their marriage or whatever. And perspective is is a huge thing because if they can hear this and go, Oh fuck, at least it’s not that sort of situation, but what sort of advice would you give them that you managed?

00:31:52:22 – 00:31:56:01

Nick McGowan

Like how you manage your mindset in those split moments? You know.

00:31:56:22 – 00:32:20:09

Sonny Von Cleveland

One of the things that I learned early in my my transformation phase during the 19 months in the whole was that pain and sadness and loneliness and despair become comfortable, right? Because you know what’s coming. You know what to expect, right? Like you know what hurt feels like. So you get to a point where you’re like, Yeah, I can handle that.

00:32:20:14 – 00:32:38:23

Sonny Von Cleveland

Oh, I’m sad. And it doesn’t it doesn’t have the impact that it had the first time. You were sad. Like there’s some things that are so excruciatingly painful that you never do it again. You go grab fire. That’s a one time thing. You’ll never do that shit again.

00:32:39:02 – 00:32:39:19

Nick McGowan

Learned.

00:32:40:01 – 00:33:08:11

Sonny Von Cleveland

Right? Right. Got it. Fuck that. And you just don’t do it again because you understand that level of hurt. That’s actual pain, right? That’s like fear of death pain, right? Like so a little bit of sadness and pain is like it’s like it’s a muscle, right? Your memory is like a muscle. Your mind is like a muscle. If you ever go to the gym and you work out the first time you ever did a workout, it sucked a couple of days later like that shit hurt, right?

00:33:08:11 – 00:33:30:01

Sonny Von Cleveland

But it wasn’t such a traumatic pain that you didn’t want to keep doing it. You kept doing it, and then you grew stronger and it became easier. And the more you did it, the easier it is. So our voice is like. It’s like working out, right? That’s that’s your conduit to healing. The more you talk about things, the more you speak your feelings, the easier it gets.

00:33:30:01 – 00:33:50:04

Sonny Von Cleveland

Because it hurts to talk about it, right? Like to say that I was raped by two men. People don’t expect somebody that looks like me or that’s been through 18 years in prison or some shit to talk about that. Right? Because a lot of it happens to one in six boys in this in this world are molested. And they don’t talk about it because we got this macho thing that we’re not supposed to talk about it.

00:33:50:04 – 00:34:14:01

Sonny Von Cleveland

Right. And but the more you speak it, the more it the less it affects you and the easier it is to talk about it. Right. So that’s how you heal. It’s just like healing. It’s just like your muscle. It’s just like soreness that goes away after time. You can talk about it, you speak it and speak it. You, we, we, we are separated from every other living entity on this earth by our voice.

00:34:14:01 – 00:34:43:05

Sonny Von Cleveland

We are the only creatures that really can speak, except for like a bird that can develop a sentence. But we’re the only ones that can really speak. So we can we we have that self-awareness that we can talk about what hurts us. The problem is, is it the pain and the sadness become comfortable. And so if somebody’s listening to this right now and you’re like, Fuck, my life sucks, it’s because you’re comfortable being sad, you’re comfortable being hurt, you’re comfortable being in pain, and you don’t feel that you’re worthy of happiness.

00:34:43:21 – 00:35:01:10

Sonny Von Cleveland

Because a lot of times the biggest hurt came right behind the moment of your of of the happiest time in your life. Like when you were really in love and you were really happy. And then she broke your heart and oh, so now you’re afraid to love again because you’re afraid that that that pain is going to come back.

00:35:01:10 – 00:35:18:01

Sonny Von Cleveland

So it’s easier to just be sad and depressed all the damn time, then go out of your comfort zone. And so that’s the advice that I would give people that right now, if you’re just feeling stuck in a rut and life sucks, it’s so much better to get on the other side, start talking about it, and it doesn’t matter who it is.

00:35:18:02 – 00:35:41:19

Sonny Von Cleveland

People are so afraid of being judged. Pull a random stranger off and just dump all your shit on them. You know what I mean? You’ll be surprised who you’d help with that, because most of us have experienced the same shit that most of us have. Right? Pain and trauma. Our pain and trauma. And it doesn’t matter, you know, if that I’ve gone to prison and somebody else hasn’t, it’s still pain, right?

00:35:41:19 – 00:36:06:01

Sonny Von Cleveland

It’s still trauma. It the mind processes it the same. We have this self-defense mechanism that goes up to try to protect ourselves from from being judged or being laughed at or or being, you know, shot as anything less than anybody else. So we put up these defense mechanisms to try to to protect ourselves from that. But when you get comfortable with I don’t I don’t I don’t answer to anybody else.

00:36:06:01 – 00:36:21:01

Sonny Von Cleveland

Right. This is my life. I’m the one that has to live this. I get to live this. You don’t you get to live your own life. And my life is, at the end of the day, none of your fucking business. And your life is none of my fucking business. You know what it means? But we both have the same goal of happiness, right?

00:36:21:01 – 00:36:45:19

Sonny Von Cleveland

Everybody deserves to be happy. So if you’re listening, you deserve to be happy. And the only thing preventing you from being happy is yourself you are the only one that can make the choice to stop being miserable and start being happy. And you can. It’s like the art of not giving a fuck. If you if you can master the art of not giving a fuck, you’re going to be so much happier.

00:36:45:19 – 00:37:04:22

Sonny Von Cleveland

Like, and not giving a fuck doesn’t mean that. That you’re some cold hearted, uncaring person. It just means that I’m not going to allow you to rent space in my mind, to dictate how I live. You know what I mean? I’m one of the most compassionate people you ever go see. I volunteer out at homeless shelters. I’m an ambassador for brutal bullying.

00:37:04:22 – 00:37:22:18

Sonny Von Cleveland

I go into schools and talk to kids about bullying and teach parents and teachers and give them the tools to recognize bullying and understand the genesis of it and try to help kids stop being bullied. So I’m by far not some selfish prick doesn’t care about the world, but on the other hand, I don’t give a shit what you think about me.

00:37:23:06 – 00:37:35:21

Sonny Von Cleveland

I don’t care if you don’t like me. That’s your problem, not mine I’m happy and I’m going to continue to be happy in my happiness. Doesn’t prevent anybody else from being happy. And I think that that’s a key thing.

00:37:36:09 – 00:37:53:09

Nick McGowan

I agree. Yeah, it’s absolutely key thing. I do think that subconsciously, even most people will look for other people to tell them how they should be and they look for those people around them and then they expect it to be one way. And then they look at you and they’ll judge because it’s not because it’s not really what they’re feeling.

00:37:53:17 – 00:38:02:18

Nick McGowan

So you live in a state where you’re like, I don’t really give a fuck because I really do actually give a fuck, but I’ll give a fuck about the things that I give a fuck about the other things. I don’t give a fuck.

00:38:03:12 – 00:38:24:13

Sonny Von Cleveland

Right? You know, and, and you see it a lot of it in the personal psychology of what people think about me with your goddamn Gucci sunglasses and your super thousand dollar suits and your frickin $600 and Nike shoes, and, like, the only reason you’re wearing that shit is to impress other people. Like, you’re really not comfortable in that shit.

00:38:24:13 – 00:38:52:01

Sonny Von Cleveland

I’m comfortable as hell. And my $3 boot, a bullying t shirt and all this. And and I mean, I’ve been known to go to these these these business events out here in the frickin t shirt and jeans. Like, I’m comfortable and, you know, I’m not here to impress you. Let me. My goal is to teach people. Yeah, the one of the the Epictetus Seneca, one of the greatest Stoics of all time, said that we’re all here for the sake of each other because we’re all community people.

00:38:52:01 – 00:39:10:08

Sonny Von Cleveland

We’re here for the sake of each other. We either teacher tolerate. And I don’t I’m not here to tolerate. I’m here to teach. I believe that I was given a gift to teach because I know how to read well, I know how to write well. I’m an articulate guy, you know what I mean? And I believe that that was a gift in my experiences.

00:39:10:08 – 00:39:26:19

Sonny Von Cleveland

We’re all part of that gift to help teach other people so that maybe I can help somebody else avoid the shit that I went through because I wouldn’t change anything that I’ve been through because that’s what made me who I am. But I believe I was given that gift to try to help other people to avoid or if you’ve gone through it already, to get over it.

00:39:26:23 – 00:39:45:01

Sonny Von Cleveland

And, you know, we live in a very sensitive culture at this time. We’re being politically correct and all that stuff is it’s big. And then with cancel culture and all this stuff, a lot of people are afraid to actually say what is what needs to be said, and that’s get over it. You’ll get over your shit. So what?

00:39:45:01 – 00:40:00:06

Sonny Von Cleveland

You know, bad shit happens to everybody, get over it. Because the only reason that you’re still sad or depressed is because you’re allowing that shit to be there. Just get over it. Because at the end of the day, nobody else really gives a fuck either, you know what I mean? Nobody else.

00:40:00:12 – 00:40:02:05

Nick McGowan

Well, they got their own shit to get over, right?

00:40:02:06 – 00:40:22:00

Sonny Von Cleveland

Everybody’s got their own shit. So nobody’s, you know, you see somebody put a post out, Oh, my life is so bad. I just don’t understand why nobody actually gives a fuck about what you just said. You might get a couple likes from people that feel indebted to like your shit because they call you a friend. But nobody actually read that and they’re like, Oh, this poor person.

00:40:22:17 – 00:40:27:14

Sonny Von Cleveland

I should. I should do something. They don’t give a shit. They’ve got their own shit to deal with.

00:40:27:14 – 00:40:28:23

Nick McGowan

They’re like, I’d scroll.

00:40:29:06 – 00:40:43:18

Sonny Von Cleveland

Right? Yeah. Like keep going, right. Nobody, they don’t actually care. So when you, when you come to understand that nobody actually really gives a shit you can, it’s easier for you to stop giving a shit and start focusing on what makes you happy and do that.

00:40:43:18 – 00:41:06:02

Nick McGowan

Yeah. Oh, man, absolutely. The the fact of giving a shit to the point where you actually understand that you care enough about other things that you care about to give your time and effort to. That is a beautiful level where a lot of people kind of live at the, I’d say, surface, the level of that where the pain hurts enough for them to bitch about it, but they really don’t want to do the things that they want to do.

00:41:06:07 – 00:41:23:18

Nick McGowan

As a coach, I know you get this because you probably talk about this with your clients, like I do it with mine. You’ve got to be able to be aware of what the fuck the problem is before you can do anything about it. And then from that, being able to figure out, yeah, and you figure out what are you keeping, what are you getting rid of and what are the meanings to all those.

00:41:24:03 – 00:41:47:20

Nick McGowan

But I think a lot of people are just so afraid of the unknown of that because they think like, holy shit, this is going to be such a monster. And they don’t go near it because they have this giant, big, hairy, scary monster image in their head. And it’s not always real. The shit that you’ve been through, the scary, fucked up and demonic moments that had happened to you and things that you poured out.

00:41:48:11 – 00:42:05:02

Nick McGowan

Well, those things I do think in some ways, and it can be easy for me to say this, not having gone through your shit, but I’ve gone through my own shit that I’ve noticed that people look to that and go, Oh, well, I had something that was a little less so I can see where you’re coming from. They can relate with that.

00:42:05:04 – 00:42:26:06

Nick McGowan

Like you can have different conversations, like think about, think about people that you’ve talked to that probably can’t have a conversation with some of the people that are in some of those previous circles that you were a part of where you can have fucking conversations with those people because they have a level of respect or at least can connect with you off the bat where somebody was a Bible thumper or something of that sort.

00:42:26:06 – 00:42:35:10

Nick McGowan

It’s a whole different story, but they can connect with people. That would be harder for you to connect with. So it’s almost like we’re here to be able to connect with people at a certain level that we’re able to get to.

00:42:36:11 – 00:42:58:09

Sonny Von Cleveland

Right? And I love to connect and talk with everybody because I’m going to learn something from you, whether I agree with you or not. I you know, I’m going to learn something from you and learn. We all learn every day. And that’s another key to growing, is to be receptive of your ability to learn. You know, a lot of people will put up a block if, you know, he’s a Trumper.

00:42:58:09 – 00:43:22:17

Sonny Von Cleveland

I don’t I don’t want to talk that motherfucker at all. You don’t know why he’s a Trumper, though. You don’t know if he was, you know, born under this this brainwashed militant mindset that we all grew up in worshiping a God damn flag. So he might just be this hurrah USA and doesn’t know Trump at all, but he’s a Trumper and you block yourself off to the beauty that is that human being because he has beautiful things to offer the world.

00:43:23:01 – 00:43:45:21

Sonny Von Cleveland

You just don’t want to talk to him. Right? And so, you know, and I avoid politics like the plague because that’s always just a you know, it’s a it’s a shit show. It’s a very slippery slope. But again, it’s another distractive mechanism put into place to distract people from being happy. Like, if you learn to not give a shit about politics, you’re going to be that much more happier in life.

00:43:46:03 – 00:43:49:01

Sonny Von Cleveland

Like shit about it.

00:43:49:01 – 00:43:59:13

Nick McGowan

And totally, yeah. It’s funny, there are people that will bitch about things like how often do you watch the news? They’re like, every night. Like, So do we need to continue this conversation or did you get the fucking point?

00:44:00:04 – 00:44:22:07

Sonny Von Cleveland

And what they don’t realize is, you know, fat people are fat because they ingest a whole lot of foods. Skinny people are skinny because they don’t need just a whole lot of food. If you are what you ingest, it’s the same thing mentality wise. If you sit down and watch the news every day, guess what? You’re you’re ingesting shit because all the news is is depressing, sad shit.

00:44:22:17 – 00:44:47:05

Sonny Von Cleveland

And so when you’re watching it, you’re going to be a sad, depressed person. Because once you take in, you’re going to want to talk about you’re going to want to put out the same thing you took in. And, you know, just like food goes in, what is it come out as it’s it comes out as shit. And so if you ingest right, if you ingest good positive stuff and just positivity, you’re going to start living that, you know, if you like.

00:44:47:05 – 00:45:15:04

Sonny Von Cleveland

I wake up every day and I read The Daily Stoic by Ron Holiday. It’s a Ryan holiday. Amazing, right? It’s a dude takes the time out of his life to send an email every day, the daily stoic. And you just read about Stoics and how they live their life. And these men like like Marcus Aurelius write like this guy lived in such a shitty world and he was such a happy dude, and he wrote down so much stuff for people to and he didn’t even write it for anybody else.

00:45:15:04 – 00:45:32:04

Sonny Von Cleveland

He wrote it for himself, for his own personal journals. But what we can learn from that is, is is how to be happy in a world that’s falling apart. Right. And you every day, you just ingest good stuff and your life is going to be that. You are what you want to take it. Man.

00:45:32:18 – 00:45:49:01

Nick McGowan

I love that point. So I also read the daily Stoic and you’d mentioned John C Maxwell earlier. I have a daily devotional from John and those are two of my daily readers along with the Bible. And then whatever books I’m reading, like right now, I’m going through the tipping point. So for the audience, I want you to take note of that.

00:45:49:10 – 00:46:01:12

Nick McGowan

You’ve heard this on different episodes where we read something or journal in the morning. So if you’re not doing that, fucking try it just straight up, try me, see what happens with it. Because the daily stoic is a one pager.

00:46:01:20 – 00:46:13:17

Sonny Von Cleveland

Try it. What do you. What do you have to lose? Right. You got nothing to lose. It takes 10 minutes of your morning. You have nothing to lose. Try it. If you don’t like it, stop doing it. But the problem is you’re probably going to keep doing it, right? It’s good stuff.

00:46:14:03 – 00:46:17:20

Nick McGowan

Yeah, I mean, that’s probably where we challenge ourselves and kind of grew from there.

00:46:18:01 – 00:46:42:01

Sonny Von Cleveland

100% and. Yeah. And find some type of faith man. You know it’s it’s I’m not an organized religious guy, right? Like I, I’m an optimist. I, I’m a big I’m Danish, so I’m a big follower of the religion of the Vikings. I absolutely love it. But I have studied the Bible more than most Christians and know it front to back.

00:46:42:10 – 00:47:03:06

Sonny Von Cleveland

And you’re only going to benefit if you if you read it. You know what I mean? It’s if you give yourself something against spirituality and positivity, it it changes you, right? Like it gives you something happy and positive. I don’t give a shit what religion you do because all religions at their core are good, right? It’s not about religion.

00:47:03:06 – 00:47:10:11

Sonny Von Cleveland

It’s about it’s about spirituality. And knowing that we’re more than what we accept of being. You know what I mean?

00:47:10:22 – 00:47:21:02

Nick McGowan

And on that note, you know, it it’s been a pleasure to have you on, man. I appreciate you getting in everything you get into. And we can probably sit here for another 3 hours. Shit. At some point you’ll come back on the show.

00:47:21:03 – 00:47:33:20

Sonny Von Cleveland

Yeah, because, I mean, we just got to the point where we we got out of prison because there’s been a whole music career. There’s been an entire YouTube career, there’s been a corporate career. There’s there’s a whole lot of shit that’s happened just since I’ve been out.

00:47:33:20 – 00:47:44:13

Nick McGowan

So yeah, man, we’ll have to do another episode or two, but why don’t you give us some sort of advice to the people that are on their path towards self-mastery and kind of wrap this thing up for us?

00:47:45:21 – 00:48:18:07

Sonny Von Cleveland

Are just be authentic men authenticity. It’s scary, right? You’re going to be afraid of losing people at one point. And on this crazy journey, I achieved global fame on YouTube. I had over 50,000 subscribers and people followed nonstop. And I’ve lost almost all of that simply by being authentic. And it it hurts way less than you think it’s going to hurt.

00:48:18:07 – 00:48:39:04

Sonny Von Cleveland

Right. It’s it’s okay to lose your your new life will cost you your old one. And if you’re not happy with the life that you currently have, you have nothing but to gain from getting a new life. Let this one go and start over. You can start over any moment. There’s nothing to prevent you. You can start over at any moment.

00:48:39:04 – 00:48:42:16

Sonny Von Cleveland

You can start over right know right now.

00:48:43:08 – 00:48:51:15

Nick McGowan

Awesome. Right now. Right now. Sunny, you’re the man. Appreciate you being on. We’ll definitely have you back at some point. Where can people find you?

00:48:51:20 – 00:48:52:22

Sonny Von Cleveland

I appreciate you, Nick.

00:48:53:09 – 00:48:55:19

Nick McGowan

And where can where can people connect with you or.

00:48:56:02 – 00:49:09:08

Sonny Von Cleveland

Just Google Sunny von Cleveland and you’ll find everything from there. There’s going to be a link to everything if you just Google it. But it’s Sunnyvale in Cleveland on all platforms. You just pop it in. You’re going to find me beautiful.

00:49:09:08 – 00:49:13:09

Nick McGowan

I’ll have some of that in the show notes as well. Again, it’s been a pleasure having you all, man. I appreciate your time.

00:49:13:13 – 00:49:22:23

Sonny Von Cleveland

Thank you so much.

00:49:22:23 – 00:49:45:15

Nick McGowan

Another great conversation on today’s episode of The Mindset and Self-mastery show. So what did you think of the show today? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Check out the Instagram or Facebook page to join the conversation. If you enjoyed the episode, please jump over to iTunes and subscribe rate and leave a five star review. It helps us be found and helps others be healed.

00:49:46:04 – 00:50:06:19

Nick McGowan

If this episode Open Your Eyes made you think or smile at all, then I’m sure it’ll do the same for your friends. Check out the show notes for more info from today’s episode and check out other episodes on the Mindset and Self-mastery showcase as well as our YouTube channel. Just go to YouTube and look up the mindset and self-mastery show.

00:50:07:11 – 00:50:32:01

Nick McGowan

Thanks again to our incredible guests for being real, honest and vulnerable us today. And I’d like to thank our sponsors, the Manly Club and the Powerhouse Men Brotherhood. When you consider yourself to be a powerhouse man, the criteria for becoming one is simple live with virtue and do good work. You see, a powerhouse man builds his life. He doesn’t settle for it.

00:50:32:10 – 00:51:01:06

Nick McGowan

He attacks mediocrity at the root. And that’s exactly what we do in the powerhouse men brotherhood visit powerhouse men dot com. That’s p0werhouse men dot com. And most importantly, I’d like to thank you thank you for hanging out with us today. Your support means the world to us. And with that, remember, your mindset matters. And so do you.