Unbroken Men: Angel Carmona

Michael: What is up gentlemen? What is up brothers? Welcome to Unbroken Men. Today, I am joined with the incredible Angel Carmona, a man who grew up in the mean, tough streets of Miami, turned professional boxer. Had a couple of really interesting incidents occur in between there and now is an incredible leader, husband, father, and a man that I reached out to personally to come and be on this show, because I know that he's going to give us a tremendous amount of insight and value, not only about what it means to be an unbroken man, but about masculinity, about getting out of your own way and about becoming the hero of your own story. Angel, brother, how are you?

Angel: I'm blessed bro. How are you, man?

Michael: I'm honored to have you, man. Truthfully. I made a, you don't know this cause I haven't told you, but I made a list of some of the men that I wanted to sit across with and have these conversations with. And you were actually the first one that I reached out to, I know a bit about your backstory, your journey. We've had the pleasure of meeting in person and What you've been able to accomplish as a man, as a leader and especially coming from a boyhood that you have is not only admirable, but one day they're gonna make a movie about you. And I was like, let me get in with this dude Now.

Angel: No I truly appreciate It is a privilege for you to ask me to be. Your first guest on this show when we first met you were so genuine. Like how we met you gave me a genuine compliment in a room for the thousands of people. You just walked by me and I was like, man, this d this dude's cool. And we just been connected ever since, man. So once again, I appreciate you and this opportunity.

Michael: Yeah, no doubt. And you know what meant to take lessons out of this show and the reason that I did that is because. Men do a really poor job about giving props to their homies, unless it's about banging some chick. And for me, it's always, I know he's yeah, that's true. It's for me, it's always been about, man, how do we connect? How do we really hype our boys up? Because if we're not going to do it, who's going to. Let me ask you what, tell me, let's go back a bit here. What was childhood like for you growing up in Miami? What were some of the things that you dealt with? What was your ideals of life? What was boyhood like?

Angel: Man, it was tough, I had a very upbringing, I seen it all before age of 10. I saw it all eyes when I was born in Miami, I was really poor, My parents were poor. And my dad, actually, we moved from Miami to New York to the Dominican Republic, and we did that two or three times before the age of 10. But in that process, I saw my dad get rich in the Dominican Republic through real estate. And then he started like cheating on my mom, he became an alcoholic, started beating on her, they ended up getting divorced. So by the age of 10, now he sold everything for a million dollars back in the nineties and gave my mom 2,000 to move back to Miami, just her and my three siblings. So now here we are, like I already saw the lowest of the lows and the highest of the highs. My dad being so wealthy back then to now I'm back in the hood with my mom and she never had a job before. So now she's like working at the mall for like minimum wage, we're staying at home. I'm the second to oldest and my mom wasn't the best example or best role model. She didn't, she was going through some tough things at the time, I didn't understand. I was just like, Oh, what did she do to my dad for her to deserve this beating? But now as a man, I understand, but yeah, it was pretty tough. And I grew up in the rough hood of Liberty city, Miami.

Michael: When you were young and you look at that, there must've been just a tremendous amount of feelings of Abandonment and neglect and loss was that something, here's my thought because I want to ask this in a very specific way. When I was growing up, I never met my father and I had this super abusive stepdad also grew up in the hood. My mom had her own things and I would just always look and try to understand what it meant to be a man. And for me at that age, it was manhood was like Jay Z and Lil Wayne and 8 Ball and MJG and Luda and I was like, Oh, being a man is about bitches and money, right? And but there were these little things too, sometimes because I love sports, I would see guys like Peyton Manning and Kobe Bryant and Mike Tyson. And I would be like, okay, maybe a man's that thing over here. And so it drove me, I played four sports growing up predominantly was, really successful wrestling. What did you think being a man met like at that age, right? Cause you're 10 years old, you're back in the hood, dad's on his thing, mom is not the best leader role model. What did you have any ideas about manhood at that age?

Angel: At 10, my idea was my dad, at the time, he had 20 cars and all big house and money and he had power and guns and influence. And he instilled fear into people at age 10. But then like at age 11, I started boxing and I started my boxing coach started to become a role model and a father figure because he had, he was more of a family man and had his life in order and, just going to church and that type of thing. So I was like, okay, so this, those became my role models. My boxing coach within from 10 to 11 is shifted.

Michael: What made you feel more attracted to that than what your dad was presenting?

Angel: I saw the, how my dad ended up, like he ended up losing it all, and then he just, he was a rock bottom after we left. And it just, I saw like the longevity, like my dad's high was a very short term lived. It was only like, he only reigned for five years, but my coaches were like, more like they were more stable.

Michael: Why boxing, for me, when I look back wrestling was this really interesting sport when I was in it, because it was one, it was super aggressive, right? You just got these two guys, just going to war. And two, I was a loner as a kid. So it actually made perfect sense for me to play a sport. Why didn't have to rely on anybody else? Boxing is very much the same thing, it's war. And when you're in there, even though you got coaches and you got trainers and you've gone through this with other humans, it's on. It's on angel shoulders. What was attractive to you about boxing?

Angel: Honestly, it was nothing. It just coincidentally, my mom met a guy that she was working with at the mall, she started dating this guy, that guy was he had a pretty big family. One Sunday, we were at his house, at his grandma's house, and one of his cousins was like, Hey, I go to this gym and I do some exercises. I bet none of you guys can do it. And the competitiveness in me, I was like, Oh, I bet I can do it. So I started going to the gym just because I was bored, I didn't have much to do and I wanted to prove myself that I can do these exercises. But one day my dad found out I was boxing and he called the house after not speaking to him for years. And he told my mom let me talk to Angel. And she was, he passes me the phone and I'm like having all these thoughts like, oh my God, they want to get back together. I can't wait to tell him that I box. And, I thought he would be happy for me because he boxed at one point and then he was like, Oh, I heard you start boxing and I was like, yeah, it was like, you should quit because you're too small and that's for heavyweights. And I was like, really skinny. So that was like, it just, it broke my heart and I was like, okay, I just passed my mom back the phone. I was like, I'll prove it to him, and then fast forward seven years later, I had one, like the state champion of Florida like seven or eight times at that moment.

Michael: Yeah, that's so heavy. Is that a relationship you've reconciled? Are you in communication with him now? Has he seen you box? Did he get experience any of that?

Angel: I yeah, I take care of him now. I yeah, I take care of him, we talk pretty often ever since 2020, I got in contact communication with him because one of my mentors told me that you're supposed to honor your parents no matter what. And I was just being coachable to my mentor. So I reached out to my dad and he was living in Dominican Republic in the back of a house in a room without windows, him and his wife and three kids, no running water. They get water once twice every week from a hole in the floor, like a little water well, that's in the floor and the ground. And it was two beds, no kitchen, they had to share a bathroom with five other families, and no lights. And that's how I found out he was living. So I moved him out of there, I got him a place, I started him a business during the pandemic and I flew out there. And now I just, I pay his bills every month and take care of them, his medicine, and food and stuff.

Michael: Yeah, that man, that's so admirable it, because a lot of people would hear that and be like, fuck that guy, he don't need him, he didn't believe in you. Why would you ever help him? I'm sure you probably have those thoughts yourself.

Angel: Up until 2020. I didn't speak to him for 15, 20 years.

Michael: Yeah, that's wild. What the You talk about being culturable was there something in that conversation with your mentor where you're like, actually, I really think I should do this.

Angel: So 1 of my mentors, I saw him for 2 years flying back from L.A. to Korea every two weeks for two years straight because his dad got sick. So I'm the type of person that if I am being challenged in an area of my life, and I see someone succeeding in the area, I'm going to ask for coaching. So let's say I was broken with trauma growing up or whatnot, which we all were, right? I would ask you for coaching because you're thriving in that area. You're healed as an example. So when I saw that I had dinner with my mentor and I said, Hey, I see you have a great relationship with your father, how'd you do it? Because this is my situation, and he said, no, my dad left me when I was five or 10. I don't remember. And he was like, and I'd never spoken to him, but my mentor told me to honor my parents no matter what. So that's why I'm there, because we're not just, reconciling our relationship and his dad ended up passing away from like COVID or something, like maybe a year or so ago. And I just witnessed this and I was like, wow, if he went through the exact same thing and he's still flying first class to Korea that's a lot of money. He was doing that, so that made me humble, and cultural in that area.

Michael: Yeah, I think a big part of it is you have to be open to the idea that maybe what is in your head isn't actually right, because we do hold these grudges, and it's you have every right in the world to be mad, right? And I think you should be like little boys need to be raised by men. And when you're not and look, you and I got lucky in some aspects, right? Because we had a sport, we had very violent, aggressive sports that we could go and learn from. People always say the two hardest sports you can play when you're a kid is wrestling and boxing. Jiu Jitsu is probably there now because Jiu Jitsu is this generation's, wrestling and boxing, but it was like we need that challenge, we need that challenge when you look at this journey and you've obviously you've been able to be in the rooms with some incredible leaders and men and mentors, how important because I want to go back to this, your competitive nature and your spirit, we live in a really weird time where being a competitive man can be looked down negatively. It's frowned upon people are like, why are you like that? Why are you so intent? And bro, I know the thing that you and I connected as I was like, this guy's intense. I know intense when I see it, ‘cause I'm intense too. Like why is a challenge important to your understanding of manhood?

Angel: First of all, one of my mentors once said that high achievers don't like mediocre people and mediocre people don't like high achievers. So it's normal to me. So when I learned that 12, 13 years ago, I was like, okay, it's fine. He was like, it's totally okay, they're never going to like you. There's nothing you can do to convince them. Now, as far as the drive we all have different motives, before my motive was to prove all my haters, her haters wrong. Oh, you don't think I can be successful. I'm going to prove to you. Then that shifted to okay, now. I want to buy some certain things, then that shifted to I want to travel, then my motivation was, I want to take care of my family. Now, it's I want to make an impact, right? Have me and leave a legacy and significant. So different drives for different times and eras of your life, I would say. So there wasn't, there was a time that I was very competitive. Now I'm like, beyond that, I'm more purpose driven, like how you are now.

Michael: Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. I think when you're younger, you need the competitive spirit. You need the challenge, especially in, look. And a lot of guys are going to listen to this who grew up like us in the hood, didn't know their dad, maybe their dad was abusive, maybe bad relationships with stepdads, but maybe they didn't get the sports. And that's why I said we were lucky. There's a benefit in that truly, because there's no question. I actually had a conversation with my friend, Jerome Maldonado. Jerome built a massive real estate empire in New Mexico. And he grew up wrestling and we just had this like 3 hour conversation about the importance of the challenge. But 1 of the things that I think happens and it's unfortunate, but it's a part of the process is when you are super focused, you have to sacrifice other things and sometimes that sacrifice is. Not knowing examples, hurting relationships, hurting friendships, not being a man of value and honor because you're so zeroed in and focused. Let's talk about mistakes for a minute because I think this is really important and I don't want to overshadow it with. With success, because you and I both know you've got to fail your way to the top, right? How many times did you get a number one to the face because you didn't have your hand where it was supposed to be right? You just fell your way to success. What are some of the failures you've dealt with in your life that you've had to heal through that you've had to grow through?

Angel: Oh, relationships, I would say, whether it was intimate relationships or just friendships, failed business partners through business ventures but for the most part, I would say things that stand out was just people that, you grew up with, you dream, you had dreams together growing up whether it was a Intimate relationship. For example, you had plans to one day get married, have a family, travel the world with certain people, but then, things happen and the relationship doesn't work out and the same friends you grew up with oh, when they were all going to be rich, what car are you going to drive? Oh, I'm going to live over here. But some people aren't willing to sacrifice and put into work and hone in and focus and be disciplined. I would say those are some of my biggest failures. Everything else, like a customer telling me, no, that I don't consider that a failure, that's more like just a process. It's normal, but I would say relationships, that's the most important for me.

Michael: Yeah, I look at some of them that I've had, I've been honest and open about this over the years, but like the woman I arguably should have married, like I cheated on her, right? When we were young and I made a huge mistake. I had a period of time when at 25, dude, I'd made a million dollars at 25 years old. And my brothers were like, don't talk to me. They were like, you're not my brother. Leave me alone, I don't want to be in your life, and you look at that and you're like, what really is success? Cause if you grew up in this idea of like successes, all the girls, all the money, all the clothes, all the cars. Dude, I had an 80, 000 car when I was 20 years old. You're like, what are we talking about here? And you go home and you're lonely. And you don't like yourself. You don't like the reflection in the mirror, that's not success. And I think it's really unfortunate. So many people like just hold onto that and they're like, I'm successful because I have all this, but they're empty inside. How have you grown? Even in those mistakes, even in those failures, right? We learn from them. And so they're not necessarily failures, but they're lessons. How do you get yourself back up? Because dude, you've taken some hits. You've literally been shot. Like how do you get yourself back up? Like, how do you still make a decision to be a man every day?

Angel: Two things, right in boxing, there's a saying that goes, never let a hit turn into a blow. So even though you get hit, don't get knocked out. And another thing that I learned in business entrepreneurship is that never feel your way into acting, but rather act your way into feeling. So whenever you're down, you just start taking action and how you feel will completely change automatically. So you're never going to feel like going to the gym, you're never going to feel like going to church, you're never going to feel like listening to a podcast or reading a book, you're never going to feel like attending a training event, but after you start taking action, you always feel better that you did it. So always feel your way into acting instead of accurate to feeling instead of feel your way into acting.

Michael: Yeah, that's really powerful. And I think that's really about getting out of your own way. You said this word a couple of times and it's actually my word for the year as we're here in 2024, 12 days in already, believe that or not, you said discipline. Why is that important to you? And more importantly, why is it important in manhood? What does discipline mean and why is it something that has brought you success in life?

Angel: Man, I wrote a book and the book is called boxer to businessman, how the discipline of being an athlete can help you achieve success as an entrepreneur. Discipline is everything. That's what separated me from everyone else that didn't make it in boxing or didn't make it in business. Discipline is so much. That's actually going to be my second book. It's going to be on that topic completely in every area of your life. How discipline is the answer, and basically discipline is doing what you hate, right? My text it says discipline is doing what you hate, but doing it like you love it. Discipline is doing what you want most instead of what you want now. So discipline is key, it's going to separate you like having that delayed gratification. I just feel that. My whole audience for me particularly is those athletes that never made it to the pros that they got injured. They made a wrong decision. They didn't, they weren't good enough, they weren't disciplined enough, they were hanging around the wrong people for whatever reason, they got injured. I don't know, they broke their leg, they got shot, went to jail and didn't make it. I'm like, listen, take that discipline that you learned in your sport because so many people, so many young men played sports as an amateur, and then they settle for regular life when they can simply take that discipline, apply it to the business world and then thrive and still live the same kind of lifestyle, if not better as a pro athlete. So discipline, it goes so far beyond just money, like you have to have discipline in every area of your life, relationships fitness financial, right? Growth, like everything takes discipline. If you plan on making it far, right? Like Kobe.

Michael: It's so funny. You just said that I look at life like this. There's three core areas of every man's life, health, wealth, relationships, okay. I want to ask you about discipline in each one of these areas because I think it's really important and guys do not understand this enough. So I want to go through these one by one and your personal experience of what you do and what your life looks like. What is discipline? Let's start first with relationships. What does discipline in relationships look like for you? What are your actions? What are your practices? How do you take care of your family your wife, your child, your community, your church, like what is discipline and relationships?

Angel: Man, That's a whole entire podcast, right? So here's the thing. When it comes to discipline, you have to be intentional about staying in communication with people because everyone is busy. Everyone, people have this mindset oh, they don't reach out to me. I'm not going to reach out to them. But I am intentional about reaching out and staying in contact with as many people as possible, especially those who I care about. If I, okay, how many people have told me that they're going through trauma and I've recommended your book. You'll follow this guy, listen to his podcast for sure, because I'm, my whole goal is to add value to people, right? I'm a very I'm a big, student of John C. Maxwell. So he's always talking about adding value to people and look for ways to add value to people. So that's, I'm always intentionally reaching out to stay in communication and figuring out how I can add value to the people in my life and, always networking. I'm disciplined about investing to go to events, to meet more people that I can add value to and that I can learn from and that's how we met. I spent thousands of dollars to go to that 10X event and I met you and it's just this one relationship that who knows the fruits that are going to come from the lives we're going to impact from people just watching is even if one person changes their lives from watching this podcasts, like that's my mindset. So relationships be intentional, add value and stay connected and continuously grow your network.

Michael: But before I move into wealth and health, talk about relationships in your immediacy, like with your wife and with your children. Because I think that I started this show for one night. If I really button this in, I asked myself this question, Angel, I said. What did the child of me, like the child version of me need that I could have not suffered so much for to become a man? What could I have taught that little boy through these conversations, through this information, how to be a great husband, a great father when I didn't have an example of that? What role does discipline play in your relationship with your wife and as a father?

Angel: Great question. I'm gonna give you a simple example. Growing up I was born in Miami. My first language was English. Then we moved to New York. And then I started to learn Spanish when I was six years old. But then when I started to learn Spanish and I moved back to Miami, I forgot how to speak English. And kids were making fun of me, and I said, man, I never want to forget English ever again. I'm just gonna stop talking Spanish. But now, as an adult, I know the power of being bilingual. So guess what? My daughter's two years old. She's two and a half. And she speaks two, almost three languages because I am disciplined enough to only speak to her in Spanish because my wife, she's Filipina and she speaks to her in English. And her mom, which is my daughter's grandma, speaks to her in Tagalog. So I am disciplined with my daughter and she only speaks Spanish, and because I know she's going to learn English by default. So that takes discipline, how many of my friends and peers know Spanish, but they don't have the discipline to just talk in Spanish to their kids so that they can learn it. It's something as simple as that, right? So that's one example. And then with my wife, I would say something that I learned from Tony Robbins about a year ago, and it was so powerful and life changing and it takes a lot of discipline to do this because we, society has taught us the opposite. And that is that we need to put our spouse first before our kids, because kids do what they see, not what we say. So if they see us putting them first and my marriage is not up to, if my marriage is not thriving. They're going to see a dysfunctional marriage and dysfunctional parenting. So Tony Robbins said, don't make that mistake. Put your merit in that takes discipline to put my wife before my daughter, ‘cause my daughter is just she's always happy and loving, but my wife, she's an alpha. So we're always like butting heads and going back and forth and not seeing eye to eye for set per se. So it takes a lot of discipline to basically. Remind myself like, okay, she has to go first because this is what my daughter is observing, right? Not to yell and scream and argue in front of her type of thing.

Michael: So yeah, that's powerful, man. And it's what's so interesting as you look at the dynamics, that maybe I'll give you my example growing up. And the only thing I ever saw in terms of health, what I thought was a healthy relationship, quote unquote, was yelling and screaming and fighting and being mean to each other. And then what do you think, dude, I love that you said that because you're setting your child up for success, because what do you think all of my relationships looks like when I'm 18, 20, 25, 27. We're yelling, we're screaming, we're fighting, we're being mean to each other. And it's luckily I will say this, even though I did see physical abuse in my home as a kid, I never hit a woman. And so I'm very thankful that I was cognizant enough not to do that. But I had, dude, I had moments where you get pushed to the edge and you realize that's on me. Control my emotions has nothing to do with her. Don't be a bitch, figure your shit out, all right. One of the things that I think, and also I love Tony, by the way, I just came back from date with destiny, unbelievable. Gentlemen, figure out how to go to date with destiny. It will change your life, I promise you, Angel. Let's talk about discipline and health. You're a pro athlete. I'm a person who has been very studious in my health, especially over the course of the last 13 years. What role does that play in manhood?

Angel: Listen, small disciplines done daily compound into big results long term. Because I started boxing when I was 10 years old, till this day, I never smoke or drank. I don't even drink soda, and that has played a tremendous role in my life, because I only drink water. At age 11, when I started boxing, I asked my mom's boyfriend at the time, how do I get a six pack? He said, simple, do a hundred setups. Every night before you go to bed for 30 days, and I did that and guess what ever since then till this day, I'm 36. I just turned 36. I still have a six pack because I've had the discipline to maintain it throughout all these years. I only had to get it once, right? And then I maintained it. They say if you're persistent, you'll get it. But if you're consistent, you'll keep it.

Michael: So I dropped my job, please go ahead. I want you to finish that thought, I just had to mic drop that because you're so spot on, what other areas of discipline do people need to have in their health?

Angel: So you can't outwork a bad diet. So your foods, I do intermittent fasting every day. I eat twice a day at 12 and at six, so I'm productive before I reward myself with food by 12, I wake up like at 12. I already worked out, fed the baby, showered the baby, fed myself, did personal growth and posted on all my social media and responded to emails and messages. I do so much before 12, right? My health, it's very important that I don't eat from after six, so I stay fasting for 18 hours and it just cleanse me, gives me so much energy. We've been brainwashed to think that we need to eat three times a day, and that's a waste of time and a waste of money, but it's so much better, right? Discipline with ex, so I put on my goal list this year in December. I wrote my goals for this year. I said that I wanted to improve my health. So I execute every single thing that I can to improve my health. So like I just bought this, these grounding sheets that you connect to the wall. I just, I executed, I saw they were selling a sauna on Instagram oh, the sauna can boom. I executed I'm just little things like that, don't think about it, just execute, that's discipline to me.

Michael: Yeah, dude. A hundred percent. And by the way, I interviewed Clint Ober on think unbroken podcast, who is the godfather of grounding. He's the guy who invented those. So I'll send you that when we wrap this up, okay. Let's talk about this wealth. There is so much conversation about the reality of money in the world that we live in. Men want to be high value men, they want to make money, they want to have success, they want to be able to provide for their family. But the average man makes about 58,000 a year. As well as I do, angel, you are going to have a very hard time in 2024 with inflation, with the world we live in taking care of a family in any way. Making, I don't even know how you take care of yourself for 58,000 a year, bro. And look, you and I are both coming from the same background, barely making ends meet single moms, working jobs that make a minimum wage. It's not like we were always rich. I definitely have had my successes and my failures in my adulthood. And I created sustainability and that's obviously one of the cornerstones, but what kind of discipline do men need to have about wealth? And actually also, can you define wealth?

Angel: Wealth is an acronym. It stands for whatever allows for long term happiness. So yeah, wealth is being able to do what you want when you want with whoever you want to do it with. Tony Robbins said that. And when it comes to discipline and health, here's what I'm gonna tell you. If you don't tell your money where to go, you will soon wonder where it went. So you have to be disciplined about telling your money where to go before it comes. And I learned that during the pandemic with Grant Cardone, he was like, guys, everybody's going to try to live off this, their savings is if you have money in your savings account, you're going to get operate from fear. He was like, you need to invest it all and, keep yourself at zero. So that was a discipline that I applied and it completely transformed my life and multiply my income by 3 by 4 by 5 year after year. And one thing I'm going to tell guys is to be disciplined about investing in yourself, in your personal growth, personal development, learning a high value skill. That is the only way that you are a high value man. If you add value to the marketplace, if you are a valuable person, the universe has no choice but to pay you more money. So invest, starting with self, stop looking for all these shortcuts or what can flip your money, invest in yourself, whether you want to learn a high paying skill to trade, whether it's communication, whether it's podcasting, whether it's whatever, trading, writing, learn a high paying skill and basically You gotta invest in yourself in order to do that. And it takes discipline not to waste money on distractions, right there. There's a quote that I love that says there's a thin line between enjoying your youth and messing up your future. So be dislike, I never clubs spent money on clubs and strip clubs, and I never did any of that because of the discipline, right? Money is valuable if you invested.

Michael: I just, I had this thought literally in this moment, or I just thought to myself, if Angel was in my life when I was 20, my life in my twenties would have been very different because I'm the opposite of you because I probably, bro, I was about the Jays, the bottles, the cars, the limos, the 500 dinners, the flex in the diamond earrings, the 2,000 chains. And look I'd figured out corporate America. And so by the time I was 25, I'd made a million dollars working cells for a fortune 10 company, which is almost impossible. Nobody I knew at my age was making that money. And dude, I was out here just getting it like focused on the wrong things, focused on girls and clubs and showing off. And I will tell you this, the reason that I brought that up is because the relationships that men have with other men are going to dictate their future. When I look at the community of guys that I'm with now, we just had a VIP dinner here in Las Vegas, and I put together this group of these, eight unbelievable men. They all make multiple six figures, if not millions of year, they're all in shape, they all have great relationships. They all have good friendships, we push each other. Now, are we guys, do we talk about dumb shit? Yeah, for sure, we do, ‘cause we're guys and we're not that smart, but we're like fucking rough. But when I look at these men, angel, the one thing that I know to be true is there's no way in hell that a 25 year old version of the man that I used to be would ever even get in that room. The only way I got there was by getting in the other rooms. How did we meet? I paid thousands of dollars for that event too, bro. How did I get there? I paid thousands of dollars for the event before that. How'd I get there? I started all of this whole journey started with a 50 investment in myself, I saw a Brendan Burchard course, I was 27 or 28. I was dead broke. I had spent all my money ‘cause I didn't have angel in my life, I don't know what you're doing, man, I don't know where you were, but I nobody smacked me in the fucking head and said, Hey man, maybe you need to spend your money on you and not on girls, and so I take this course, I'm fit angel. Listen to me, 50,000 in debt. When I took that course, I didn't even have 50 dollars. And I look at my life now, and I know one thing to be true over everything. Your friends will show you your future. How important is it to be around men of value, if you want to be a man of value?

Angel: man, 1000 percent man. And, for the people listening, I don't want everyone. I was always disciplined, right? Especially with the not smoking and not drinking, but I want you guys to know a little bit more about my past, even though I was disciplined, I was not doing personal growth and development in my teens and in my early twenties, which led to me surrounding myself with other guys who were also listening to gangster rap music. And we ended up forming a crew that was influenced by these gangster movies. And we were trying to get money by any means necessary. And these guys, we ended up selling drugs together and robbing together just to get money to buy clothes and impress women. I remember being in high school, right? Before I started doing all of that, I was working three jobs and I was I remember I had 2,000 worth of fitted caps in high school and I had all these Jordans, right? ‘Cause that's what I thought was valuable today. I don't even wear Jordans cause they're too cheap for my feet. It's like my dude, you get what I'm saying? But that was my association, the law of association is everything. And guess what? Elevation requires separation, there's power in proximity. When I got in the right rooms and slowly but surely I was intentional and disciplined enough about changing my associations, my entire life changed. The brokest person in my inner circle makes six figures.

Michael: Same. It's unbelievable, dude. And look, you're not going to be there when you start. So let's be very clear Angel, ‘cause we, you and I both know this when you want to be a man of value, who steps into a healed masculine energy, who has success in health, wealth, and relationships. You're starting at ground zero, same as everybody else. You're going to have to figure out the game, you need to listen to guys like Angel, you need to listen to guys like me, you need to get in our programs, you need to read our books, you need to listen to our podcasts, you need whatever it takes, you got to get closer to us, you and I have one thing in common because we follow what Grant says, bro. If you got to be in the room, I don't care how you get in there. If you got to serve water, be in the room. When you think about. Cause man, I just, I want to preface this in a really special way. Cause I just don't want guys to be disillusioned. This is not easy.

Angel: Nope.

Michael: What does that mean to you? When I just said that.

Angel: Man people ask me, what's the toughest part of your journey is leaving some people behind, right? Leaving some people behind, there's a call that I live by that says. Most times your friends and family won't support you until they see strangers celebrating you. And that's the harsh reality, most people want to be liked by their circle so much that they rather not change. They rather stay the same in their comfort zone. I don't know if you're familiar with Maslow's hierarchy of needs. People want to feel belong and they're not willing to separate that in that's what it takes. Elevation requires separation going to the next level. It's not easy leaving some people behind the same people you cared about, but you got to love them enough, but you got to love them, but not love them enough to stay broke with them love them, but don't love them enough to stay in the same place. They're friends, that 20 years ago or let's say 13 years ago when I started my personal growth journey They're still doing the same exact thing listening to exact same exact rap music from back then and they haven't grown, they haven't read a book. They haven't been in one room. I've been in a thousand rooms with people more successful than me. So the whole philosophy is hang around people that have the same common future, not just the same common past.

Michael: Let me ask you, how long have you been with your wife?

Angel: Married. We've been married for seven years now. March will be seven years. We got married in 2017.

Michael: Amazing. Do you think Angel, at 25, 24, 23, 22, 18, with fitted caps and J's, running the streets, doing all the things that he did, would be a man worthy of the woman that he's with today?

Angel: Oh, no, not for sure, of course not, man. That's a whole another topic, but no, you have to become valuable. Like for me to even get in her radar for her to respect me, in order for me to be in a room, how we met is cause she saw me speaking on stage. And if I wouldn't have changed, I would have never been on that stage. So…

Michael: The decisions of today will create your tomorrow. It's the only thing I ever think about, man. And I think that a lot of men are, they're so directionless and they're so zeroed in on like the women and the money. But it really, everything, if you think about this, it all starts with you, your discipline starts with you, your care for you starts with you, your goals, your ambitions, your dreams. It starts with you. And I think that one of the, I know this, the reason why I wanted to have you on is because even though you and I haven't been in a ton of communication, I see what you do. We are in the same circles. People talk about you. I know what you're about and it's inspiring and I want to be around men like you. And so I've said, who do I want my audience to be around men like you as well. And it requires you, you have to change. so much. You have to check you just can't check like you don't live in the same city you grew up in pack your shit and leave you don't have the same friends, you got new friends, you have the different Mindset you went from hip hop to Tony Robbins, I should be like a thing right and it's that's what it takes Are you willing to do what is required? Brother, this has been so good, we need more time. I want to respect your time, especially today. We need to go deeper. We got some unresolved conversations to have here. I think we can help men even deeper. So we will absolutely do that. But before I ask you my last question, where can everybody reach out to you? Find you check out that book and learn more.

Angel: Thanks man. It is a pleasure. I carved out 90 minutes for this man. I came prepared 'cause I wanted to add as much value to your audience as possible. But all my social media platforms is @IamAngelCarmona and my book, Boxer to Businessman is on audible and Streaming platforms. It's on it's on Amazon. They can order it or listen to the audio on any audio book platform. And I also have a motivational album streaming like on Spotify and Apple music and YouTube and everywhere else.

Michael: Amazing. Yeah. And we'll put all those links in the show notes for the audience. A couple of the last questions that I want to get into with you because I think that they're very important. What do you think are lessons that every boy who grew up like us, maybe not the best father figure, they're not the best home, they're not background. What are the most important lessons that you've learned that have turned you into the man that you are today?

Angel: Man, I like to put it in quotes because quotes, people can remember fast, right? They can remember quickly and implement and apply it to their lives. The choices you make will eventually make you that's one of my mentors taught me what you tune into you turn into, I used to tune into a lot of rap music and gangster movies and that's what I turned into. I turned into a gangster, right?

Michael: I was, there's a famous picture of you as a gangster. You just posted this recently and I was like, that is not the man that I know.

Angel: People don't believe it. People do not believe that I came this far like it's completely night and day. There's one video I made a real of how I used to speak back then. It sounds like I'm talking a different language, but that's what happens when you don't read books and listen to audio books, right? Or podcast. Man, so many lessons. You have to be selfish before yourself less. Give to yourself until your cup runneth over and give to others from your overflow. Focus on yourself, your personal growth and development, and be that light, that beacon of light to shine and inspire everyone and everyone else will follow. If you focus on your personal growth, your money will meet you and your mentality zap. Change your association, change your mindset, and change your environment. Those are the three keys.

Michael: Yeah, it's almost impossible. It's almost impossible to not be successful when you get clear when you have determination. You mentioned this a little bit ago, you sat down and you wrote down your goals for this year. I do life strategic planning every year, right before the turn of the year. And I break down health, wealth, relationships, hobbies, goals, financial travel relation, like dating because I'm dating right now. And I've so much clarity. I know where I'm going. And I think about this, a ship with no compass will land on any island and so many men are looking at their lives, whether they're 20 or 40 or 60 years old, and they're wondering how they got to where they are, and it's I'll tell you, show me your calendar, show me your calendar, show me your friends, show me what you listen to show me what you watch, bro I don't live I rarely if I need a hype up at the gym, I'll throw on some three six But dude, I don't listen to that I'm listening to grant and Alex Hermosi and Tom Bilyeu and Gary Vaynerchuk and an Angel Carmona I'm not listening to fucking Luda. I'm not doing it, bro.

Angel: It's funny you say that, there's a saying that goes, stop listening to Post Malone and listen to Grant Cardone, stop listening to Chris Brown and listen to Les Brown, stop listening to Cardi B and listen to Gary V and stop listening to who was the last one Jim Jones and listen to Jim Rohn.

Michael: Oh my God. Let's talk about this, all right. This is so important, man. Mentors. You and I have had some of the very similar mentors in our lives. My mentors growing up were, they're young, guys teaching guys who are teachers at high school or coaches. They're 22, 20. They don't know anything, but you get a little bit from it. And then I started getting my very first mentor ever was a guy named Southland cotton. He taught me so much about business, dude, I carry some of his business principles, 13, 14 years later into what I do now with think unbroken, with unbroken men, with coaching and speaking and podcasting, there were times where, if you go look up an old episode of ask Gary Vee, I'm a guest Grant Cardone invested into think unbroken when I spoke at his event, there's a picture of me and Tom Bilyeu, on my desk right now that I look at every single day because he's the man that I'm model. We talk about these concepts. I just went to learn from Tony Robbins for six days at date with destiny, we hear these concepts mimic model master, but most men are not in a space where they've identified what manhood means. Talk to me about mentorship in your life, who are those people been and how do you know if they're right?

Angel: As I mentioned earlier there's different areas of your life. There's six to be exact is I call it the wheel of integrity. I don't know it all off the top of my head, but the career, the financial spoke is like a wheel. If your wheel has one broken spoke, it's going to wobble. Two broken spoke is barely going to move. So there's different areas. You need to find a mentor in every area, right? Like maybe I can be your mindset, mental mentor, right? For mental health and stuff, but maybe I can't teach you about spirituality, maybe you need to find a different mentor in that area. So look for a mentor in every area of your life. That is where you want to be based off the fruits of their labor. So find mentors that are 5, 10, 20 years ahead of you in every area of your life. Now there's direct mentorship and indirect mentorship like Jim Rohn. He's no longer with us, but I listened to him. He's my mentor, right? Napoleon Hill, he's no longer with it, but he's my mentor. Then there's some people that you can have, proximity with Tony Robbins and John C. Maxwell, right? And Gary V. These guys are still here. Grant Cardone, they're still here. Get in those rooms and then do business with these people, add value to them, and you'll see how you start to develop. But once again, if you don't know what you're looking for, you're not going to know which direction to go. But I have a mentor that I want to be like in every area of my life. And, a mentor is a shortcut for success. They'll turn decades into days and save you years of heartaches, headaches, and trial and error.

Michael: But you have to execute, this as well as I do. We are coach, we are coachable. Your coach has never thrown a punch for you. My coaches have never thrown a kick for me coach, a client for, and so it's like. You mentioned that you're coachable. There's a lot of guys. I guarantee you that right now we're going to lose some guys. We just are, because this is the nature of it. There are some guys who are out here being little babies. They're blaming the world for why they can't have what they want. And they're sitting and they're going, oh, those guys are so smart. They know all this, they're connected all these people. But you and I both know what the work that we've put in. What would you say to the guy who he's like, he has never invested. He thinks it's bullshit. He doesn't want to do it, he thinks guys like you and me are clowns, but yet he's still here, what would you say to that guy who is like, on the verge of having a bullshit, poor, underwhelming, resentful, regretful life. What would you say to the guy who was just one decision away from something different if he actually would choose to bet on himself?

Angel: Okay. So here's what I'm going to tell that person, for things to change, you have to change your level of thinking has currently gotten you where you're at right now in your life. And if you're unhappy, if you're unhappy in any area of your life, you need to stop thinking and start taking action in that area of your life is. Execution over ideas, the true definition of the true reflection of an education is application. So unless you're taking action on what you're being coached, you're not really learning anything. Ideas are abundant, execution is rare. So just take action if you're really unsatisfied in this particular area of your life. And if, you're comfortable. You should never be the richest and smartest person in your circle. Get in a room where that makes you uncomfortable in those areas.

Michael: What about like these guys who are like, I don't have any money Angel. I don't have thousands of dollars like and then like we'll talk about podcast, but you keep telling me to get in the room, but I don't have any money. What do you do? Because I want to create some real solutions for these guys, I'm trying to I'm trying to look at these excuses and throw them out the window.

Angel: Man, first of all, where value is absent, cost is a factor. So if you don't, you can't come up with the money. This is what my mentor told me when I first told him I didn't have money to start my first business. When I told him I couldn't go to my first personal development seminar. He told me, Angel, if I pull up my Bentley and I sold it to you for 500, but you need to come up with the money in 24 hours, what would you do? I said, 24 hours, give me two hours. I'll be right back. And he was like, see, angel, you're worse than broke. You're poor. I said, there's a difference. He said, yeah. He said, poor is an acronym. He said, broke is temporary, but poor is eternal, poor stands for passing over opportunities repeatedly. He said, you, can find the money to buy that car, but you can't even afford to put gas in it or even change the tires. If you got a flat tire, but you want to invest into a business, invest into yourself the mind that got me that car where I could buy that Bentley every single month after month because of how I invested in myself. So here's what I'm gonna tell you. Start, do what you got to do, right? I just posted a reel yesterday. If you're going to accomplish your goals this year, there's three places you need to go, above and beyond the extra mile and out of your way. So go do what you got to do, get out of your comfort zone to get extra money. The first book I ever read that changed my life was rich, that poor dad by Robert Kiyosaki, that book costs 5 and that's brand new. You could buy a used one for a dollar or two. You can download like, your mentors will give you resources, you can reach out to me. Hey, Angel, I'm broke, busted and disgusted right now. I need a PDF, I'll send you my book for free, you offer when I met you, I was like, Hey, you could get my book for free. There's ways you can get your book for free, there's so much free resources. My album is streaming 10 years of personal growth and development, I put into 12 tracks. It's called the Paradigm Shift my album on Spotify and Apple and YouTube. These are free things. So you can make excuses or you could change your life, but you can't make both.

Michael: Ooh, bro, you literally gave me goosebumps cause I'm sitting here and I'm like that your energy when you are in that place, that is who you are as a man. That's why when I see you on stage, I go, man, I relate to this guy. ‘Cause when I'm on stage, I'm burning it down, I'm here for a purpose, I'm here to serve a greater good, I look at the relationships I have with my people, the growth of my brothers, the successes of my, dude, I've coached thousands of people and most of them have changed their life and become tremendously successful. And the reason why is because the ones who act are the ones who win. It is that simple, it is that simple, there's no way around it. There is no magic carpet. There's no golden ticket, hell dude, actually think about this for a second. Almost every one of our mentors has been dead broke.

Angel: For sure. If you study successful people, you understand that it's normal to have a struggles to success stories, it's normal. If someone has taken your story and won with it, it doesn't matter the story. You've been molested, you've been raped, you've been robbed, you've been shot, you've been, you had it all and you lost it all, you don't have any parents. Like someone, doesn't matter the story. Someone has taken your story and won with it because they chose to execute over putting up, execution versus excuses.

Michael: And guys like me and Nate, man, listen to me. Guys like Angel and I, we get fucking fired up because we believe in this. We've watched our lives change. Dude, I cannot tell you how many friends I have in prison. My three childhood best friends got murdered. I can't tell you how many family members are in jail right now, Pendleton, Indiana, chilling. And here we are, and we are fired up and we're inspired because we know what's possible. You change your mindset, you change your life. It is everything, there's nothing more important, but you've got to make a decision. And I wish that more men would. And that's why I started this show. This is why I wanted you to be the first guest because I know what you've been through. There's very few people in the world that I sit across from them and I go, he gets it. And Angel, you're one of the guys who get it. And so tremendous amount of love to you, my brother. Thank you for being here. My last question for you, it is the question. I think it's the most important question I'll ever ask anyone. What does it mean to you to be an unbroken man?

Angel: To be unbroken, man that's a powerful question. Once again, we need an entire podcast for that. But as I mentioned earlier, when something is broken, it can be fixed. When something is broken, it can be put back together. My mentor once told me, remember yourself as if you've been dismembered. Re-member yourself, put yourself back together to who are you're supposed to be, who you're born to be. And to be unbroken, right? Is to operate to your highest potential, if you take anything that is broken, it doesn't operate to its highest potential, but something that's unbroken, it's operating to its highest potential. Who are you? Being a disciplined version of you. Who are you, a financial free version of yourself. Who are you? A high value version of yourself. Who are you? All of this is the opposite. This is all of this is being unbroken, you're not worried about. Finances brands, like I have friends in my inner circle today that I can call and ask for 50,000. If I need it could you imagine having those kinds of friends? This is what it feels like to be unbroken being with a woman, that it's taking care of your children, your family, that loves you. So you can focus on the bigger picture of purpose and goals and significance, not chasing the streets, this is what it means to be unbroken, like not having to feel a void through gambling and drugs and addiction or whatever the case may be. Being unbroken is being fulfilled, living to your highest potential outside of your comfort zone.

Michael: Man, so powerful. This isn't lip service. This isn't us talking for the sake of talking, this is fact. You got two men here who are living proof of what's capable when you execute. When you put yourself in the right rooms, when you get a mentor, when you get clarity, when you become disciplined, when you put yourself before your friends who have no interest in the betterment of your life, when you make hard choices, when you stay off the drugs and the alcohol and the porn and the video games, when you show up, this is what happens and we don't I'll speak for myself, I'm not better than you. I'm not, I don't view myself in any way as somehow smarter than you, but as a man, I can tell you, I'm beating you because I choose to be unbroken. My friends, thank you for being here. Check us out on Spotify, Apple podcasts and YouTube. I'm on social at Michael unbroken.

Angel: Can I just say one more thing?

Michael: Go for it. Sneak it in, brother.

Angel: Yeah. This is the last thing I want to say, don't get it twisted. We're going to continue to break ourselves and then unbreak ourselves for the rest of our lives, because that's how muscle is made, you break through it. But it's normal, just understand that I'm going to be broken in the future in one area of my life, but I'm going to continue to work at it to be unbroken. Thank you! That's all I wanted to say.

Michael: Thank you, my friend.

Until Next Time,

 My Friends,

 Be Unbroken.