[Music]
I’m honored to be with you today to
share with you the work of defy ventures
where our slogan is transform your
hustle and if you give me the
opportunity today I might even transform
a little bit of your hustle so the big
idea behind defy ventures is that many
people who are incarcerated are former
drug dealers or gang leaders who
actually share a lot of similar skill
sets with successful legal entrepreneurs
like yourselves and if you ask a warden
many of them would tell you that their
prison cells are filled with
natural-born hustlers who have been
selling all kinds of stuff illegally and
there’s that saying you can’t take the
hustle out of the hustler so what would
happen if we actually transformed their
hustle well that’s exactly what we do at
defy ventures where we use our love for
entrepreneurship and host shark tank
style pitch competitions inside and
outside of prisons and pair it with a
whole lot of character development to
equip men women and youth who are
incarcerated some of America’s biggest
underdogs to win every single day so
why’d you come here to TEDx San
Francisco today to be inspired I hate to
disappoint you right from the jump but I
am NOT an inspirational speaker I’m a
social change agent and my wife or being
on this stage right now is to get action
out of you to generate results if you
are someone who has been complaining
about the status of our country or if
you claim that you hate social or racial
injustice
welcome to defy I’m here today to talk
you into coming to prison with me and
becoming a philanthropist a
philanthropist that you’ve always wanted
to be in watch out I was trained as a
teenager by Cutco knives selling knives
door-to-door so I’m gonna not smile and
try to get it yes out of you by the time
I’m done here so now I need a little
audience participation and a whole lot
of honesty if by the age of 23
you did something really really stupid
that you really regret raise your hand
up I okay that’s what I thought most of
you if you’ve ever been arrested raise
your hand
not so many thank you for your honesty
if you’ve done something in your life
for which you could have been arrested
but you did not get arrested raise your
hand up high all the not enos of
tedsters that’s what I thought this is a
lot of why I do defy this is my best
effort at leveling the playing field in
America because sadly in our country
sometimes people look a little more
estable than others and my experience if
you are black or brown or poor you
rarely encounter justice the way that
you would if you are white and you’re
rich and you can buy your way out of
almost any crime to me that’s not
justice what if you were only known for
the worst thing that you’ve ever done
think about what that is that act what
would be the accompanying labels
what would you be known for for the rest
of your life ex liar fill in the blank
because this is the world that I work in
the people that I represent and advocate
for they’ve made grave mistakes in their
past but then they serve their time they
pay their debt to society yet they’re
released from prison and are called
ex-offenders for the rest of their lives
and it’s like they’re wearing these
invisible handcuffs and so many people
don’t want to hire someone even for a
mistake that they made in their youth
America which is touted as a world of
second chances has only 5% of the
world’s population but we have 22% of
the incarcerated population and we are
failing miserably in the field of prison
rehabilitation of 23 year olds in our
country 30% of them already have a
criminal history don’t you think that’s
a little young to write people off for
the rest of their lives and if people
who go behind bars 76.6% of them are
really everyone
the statistic that makes me the saddest
is that 70% of children with
incarcerated parents pop follow and
their parents footsteps to prison it’s
quite a legacy to inherit isn’t it well
legacy did you inherit and what are you
doing with it some of you might be here
and you’re like yon who cares
people with criminal histories I don’t
care if you care about our country I
hope that you care about the next
generation of children and perhaps you
don’t realize that nearly half of US
children actually have a parent who has
a criminal history and that’s why at
defy we don’t just teach
entrepreneurship but we actually teach
parenting so that our men can become the
parents that we need they’re role models
the entrepreneurs the employers the
employees the voices that our
communities need so much and that’s how
we’re reversing generations of
incarceration and violence and poverty
and many philanthropists like to fund
after-school kids programs for at-risk
youth and that’s great but I have yet to
ever see a single after-school Kids
program that is more effective than a
committed parent who’s teaching the
values to their own child that’s why we
do what we do at defy and how it’s not
just men we serve the ladies do so they
can become the proud mothers that they
have always wanted to be and
collectively this is our way of making
America great again don’t hate don’t
hate this is just a little prisoner I
thought it was sent to me and I thought
it was kind of funny so I’m gonna tell
you my story about how I got started in
this work when I was 12 years old a good
friend of mine was brutally murdered
I thought anyone in prison was like the
scum of the earth they could rot and die
in that place so I never thought I’d be
doing this I used to work in venture
capital and private equity and when I
was 26 and blonde I was invited on a
tour of a Texas prison and I found
myself surrounded by amazing human
potential people I believe our America’s
most overlooked talent pool biggest
underdogs and so I jumped ship from my
fancy New York private equity job I
moved to Texas I poured out
my whole bank account I had $50,000 into
starting what became prison
entrepreneurship program or PEP in Texas
and over the next five years under my
leadership we generated some of the
strongest results and prison
rehabilitation with a recidivism rate of
less than five percent I lived my life
for graduation day for half of our men
they’d never been in a cap and gown
before and we recruited their families
to celebrate one of the biggest
accomplishments of their lives and
before the graduation I had negotiated
with a warden for approval for our guys
to decorate these little teddy bear
t-shirts and then at one point in the
graduation ceremony I get our proud dads
up there on the stage armed with their
teddy bears and I would say to all the
kiddos in the audience if you see your
daddy up on stage right now run up to
him here’s a good gift to give you and
the dad said scoop their arms and their
kids into their arms and say I love you
and I will never leave you again so
another reason I do this work is because
of my love and appreciation of good
parenting but I’m no longer at PEP in
Texas I’m now at defy and I wish that I
could tell you that it’s because I’m an
aggressive social entrepreneur which is
true you wanted to bring national and
healing opportunities all over this
country but that question that I asked
you earlier became my story what would
it be like if you were only known for
that worst thing so I had been married
for nine years and at thirty-one I found
myself unexpectedly divorced something I
said would never happen and after
receiving my divorce papers I didn’t
handle myself in a way that made me
proud I ended up having some
relationships with people who had gotten
out of the Texas prison system a
decision I regret to this day I knew
better I was honest about my choices and
what I did was not illegal that it was a
bad leadership decision and when the
Texas Department of Criminal Justice
found out about my mistakes they forced
my resignation in the media nationally
so instead of being known for the good
work that I had poured my life into I
was not now known for what became a sex
scandal I was so covered in the thickest
wall of
shame that I didn’t want to live anymore
but what saved my life was that before
my story hit the news I sent out my
mistakes in a full disclosure letter to
her 7500 supporters who wrote back we
love you we stand with you you’ve always
preached grace in second chances what
are you doing next I don’t have a plan B
I don’t know I went through a whole lot
more therapy than I care to admit over
the next year I moved back to New York
City I got an offer to go back into
venture capital but I felt like a
sellout the minute that I got that offer
because I know why God has put me on
earth so seven years ago feeling as
insecure as ever what will people say
about me after this scandal
I found it defy ventures and defy is my
2.0 it’s my second chance to give second
chances some people say we’re in the
second-chance business but if you
actually knew the back stories of the
men and women that we serve you might
realize that we are more often in the
business of legitimate first chances so
what do we do at defy our program in
prison is called CEO of your new life
where we teach entrepreneurship an
employment readiness character
development reentry preparation and
family reunification we have a hundred
courses taught on video by some of the
nation’s best experts we’re so spoiled I
can’t even believe it Seth Godin Harvard
and Stanford MBA professors teaching our
people Preet Bharara who’s fired by
Trump is part of our volunteer faculty
and when our graduates finish defy they
average an eighth grade formal education
but our curriculum has been vetted by
Baylor University’s MBA program and when
they earn that certificate it ends up
being usually the proudest moment of
their lives and it’s that much sweeter
because it’s done in the presence of
their families who are so proud of them
this photo right here is of a Pelican
Bay State Prison solitary confinement
unit also called the Shu where we work
this is one of our business volunteers
providing business coaching right before
the shark tank in the Shu the warden at
Pelican Bay took a big risk on the day
of the graduation because he wanted
is meant to have a proper graduation in
a cap and gown he took them out of
solitary confinement and for some of our
men it was their first time seeing the
sky in 11 years and this man’s name is
Mike and he won the competition on that
day and he delivered proudly in front of
a very special guest her name is Eden
she’s his 19 year old daughter when Eden
was only nine years old her daddy was
locked up and this photo here is of the
first hug that she’s gotten to give her
dad in the last 10 years because before
that it was across four inches of glass
Eden said that her dad’s graduation was
the best day of her life
so the defi love doesn’t stop at the
prison walls when our men and women get
out of prison we hook them up with jobs
executive mentors we bring them on the
most amazing field trips to all these
companies like Google that photo is of
our grads up at Harvard Business School
being taught by the very best and we’ve
achieved our results by recruiting some
of the nation’s top leaders like Sheryl
Sandberg here in prison with us to turn
into advocates for prison reform we have
4,400 volunteers on a hoping to add to
the ranks today with all of you and
we’ve been recognized in all types of
media for second chances and nice
results and we were featured as one of
the 25 most disruptive companies of the
year in ink magazine were the only
nonprofit that made the list because we
have a 95 percent employment rate for
our men and women who are coming home
and a 3.2 percent recidivism rate which
I believe is the lowest of any prison
rehabilitation program in the country
and we’re saving taxpayers bundles of
money our cost per head for one
scholarship is only $500 compare that to
the cost that you California taxpayers
pay seventy two thousand dollars to lock
up one person for one year we’ve
incubated and financed 170 companies by
our released graduates their businesses
have been so successful that they have
created 370 job opportunities for other
release men and women I might tell you
about a couple of six
stories if we go back to the slide one
of our one of our graduates is in our
audience right now and he founded a
company called prison bars while doing
five years of prison time he came up
with this a recipe for criminally
delicious granola bars of which he sold
thousands throughout the country
and if I could show you on the slides if
your company needs any trade show
displays then you would see project
trade show look it up it’s the name of a
company in the Bay Area he’s made three
hundred thousand dollars in revenue in
just his first year out of prison ok
there’s stuff that sunberg right there
he’s in our audience and project trade
show we’re a proud customer of there’s
three hundred thousand dollars in
revenue and now I’d like to share with
you the success story of our best known
graduate costs hard day
we’re up two blocks away from here and
back in a day or you hear these sirens
drug mines actually coming up this
building we lived under the poverty line
my mom didn’t have much she worked in a
factory she would ask me you know what
do you want to do when you grow up and I
told him I want to be rich the first
opportunity that I had to become rich
was to the world of drug I started at
eleven smoking weed getting involved
heavily with coke and crack and I
started selling crack right on his back
we rode out to a multi-million dollar
company at the age of 19 I was making
over two million dollars a year 23 I was
charged with one of the largest drug
delivery services in New York City he
charged as a kingpin went into prison
the doctors told me that cholesterol
levels was so bad that I could have died
within five years I was sentenced to
seven years in prison and I said I was
not gonna die in prison I started doing
push-ups dips with the limited space
that I had and began moving
in lost 70 pounds in six months I caught
the eyes from other image helped over 20
M and Sue’s over a thousand pounds
combined and I came up with the idea
while I was in solitary confinement and
I wanted to create something special and
different so I came up with calm body
today we hire four men incarcerated
individuals I felt the same pain coming
home I couldn’t find a job everybody was
shutting the door behind me because of
my record giving them an opportunity and
a second chance started calm body and
now it’s taken off I want to help as
many formerly incarcerated people as
possible and give them a second chance
so sign up and join us come to the time
peace
thank you we felt costs raised $250,000
and he has 14,000 customers and this
year alone now we have served 2,500 IITs
that sends for entrepreneurs in training
what we call our people and our vision
is highly scalable we rolled out in 30
prisons all over the country and I just
recently turned 40 and this morning I
actually found out that I was given the
Forbes 40 over 40 award not sure how I
feel about that but anyway by the age of
53 I have plans to roll out defy in
every major prison in America and also
provide post release services everywhere
and since I know that some of the TEDx
audience is international here’s a photo
of defy where global ich in Kenya where
we’ve served in three prisons and what
keeps me up at night this right here is
a photo of women that I met in a
Brazilian prison we’re not serving there
yet
they’re incarcerated there with their
babies and they said to me please don’t
forget about me and I haven’t and nearly
every prison that I walk into I met with
people who say did you get my letters
I’ve been praying every day for a second
chance for an opportunity like this and
we have long wait lists to serve these
people who want nothing more than a
second chance I need some help sometimes
when people hear this message they say
I’m so inspired how am i great inspired
to do what so I’m about to try to close
you so please whip out your cell phones
because you won’t want to miss out if
you choose to come to prison with me you
will be met by the warmest audience of
budding entrepreneurs who have so much
energy and excitement for their new
futures where sometimes even a little
hip certainly unconventional and I would
love for you to come so we’re gonna do
another raise your hand thing get your
answer in your head right now because
I’m about to ask you are you gonna do
nothing are you gonna do something if I
give you a choice to do something that
you are perfectly capable of doing are
you gonna say yes all those of you who
are gonna do absolutely nothing after
hearing
this raise your hand right now the power
of fear pressure all right then on the
flipside all those of you if I give you
an option to do something that you’re
capable of doing how many of you are
gonna consider saying yes raise your
hands no alligator arms hold them up I
look around because that’s why I’m here
and see the difference that we can make
here through TEDx San Francisco alone
I’m really grateful for that so here’s
your menu please whip out your cell
phone you can come to prison with me or
you can provide a scholarship one
scholarship is $500 and if you provide
an opportunity to one person it will
result in this what Andrew said the
feeling was unexplainable to be able to
dance with my son on that stage he still
talks about it to this day how he was
able to hug me lots of times
thank you for helping me better myself
teaching me to become an entrepreneur
and reuniting me with my family my name
is Kat Hoch see hope conveniently choked
I actually do i I do Brazilian Jujitsu
for fun so you’ll remember choke at de 5
entries org and just write I’m in and
then tell me what you’re in for tell me
how many scholarships you can give
because some of you can do more than one
and come to prison and I will tell you
that I live for the day when I hear from
our defi kids I want to be just like my
daddy I’m gonna take over the family
business one day thank you very much
[Applause]
[Music]
I’m honored to be with you today to
share with you the work of defy ventures
where our slogan is transform your
hustle and if you give me the
opportunity today I might even transform
a little bit of your hustle so the big
idea behind defy ventures is that many
people who are incarcerated are former
drug dealers or gang leaders who
actually share a lot of similar skill
sets with successful legal entrepreneurs
like yourselves and if you ask a warden
many of them would tell you that their
prison cells are filled with
natural-born hustlers who have been
selling all kinds of stuff illegally and
there’s that saying you can’t take the
hustle out of the hustler so what would
happen if we actually transformed their
hustle well that’s exactly what we do at
defy ventures where we use our love for
entrepreneurship and host shark tank
style pitch competitions inside and
outside of prisons and pair it with a
whole lot of character development to
equip men women and youth who are
incarcerated some of America’s biggest
underdogs to win every single day so
why’d you come here to TEDx San
Francisco today to be inspired I hate to
disappoint you right from the jump but I
am NOT an inspirational speaker I’m a
social change agent and my wife or being
on this stage right now is to get action
out of you to generate results if you
are someone who has been complaining
about the status of our country or if
you claim that you hate social or racial
injustice
welcome to defy I’m here today to talk
you into coming to prison with me and
becoming a philanthropist a
philanthropist that you’ve always wanted
to be in watch out I was trained as a
teenager by Cutco knives selling knives
door-to-door so I’m gonna not smile and
try to get it yes out of you by the time
I’m done here so now I need a little
audience participation and a whole lot
of honesty if by the age of 23
you did something really really stupid
that you really regret raise your hand
up I okay that’s what I thought most of
you if you’ve ever been arrested raise
your hand
not so many thank you for your honesty
if you’ve done something in your life
for which you could have been arrested
but you did not get arrested raise your
hand up high all the not enos of
tedsters that’s what I thought this is a
lot of why I do defy this is my best
effort at leveling the playing field in
America because sadly in our country
sometimes people look a little more
estable than others and my experience if
you are black or brown or poor you
rarely encounter justice the way that
you would if you are white and you’re
rich and you can buy your way out of
almost any crime to me that’s not
justice what if you were only known for
the worst thing that you’ve ever done
think about what that is that act what
would be the accompanying labels
what would you be known for for the rest
of your life ex liar fill in the blank
because this is the world that I work in
the people that I represent and advocate
for they’ve made grave mistakes in their
past but then they serve their time they
pay their debt to society yet they’re
released from prison and are called
ex-offenders for the rest of their lives
and it’s like they’re wearing these
invisible handcuffs and so many people
don’t want to hire someone even for a
mistake that they made in their youth
America which is touted as a world of
second chances has only 5% of the
world’s population but we have 22% of
the incarcerated population and we are
failing miserably in the field of prison
rehabilitation of 23 year olds in our
country 30% of them already have a
criminal history don’t you think that’s
a little young to write people off for
the rest of their lives and if people
who go behind bars 76.6% of them are
really everyone
the statistic that makes me the saddest
is that 70% of children with
incarcerated parents pop follow and
their parents footsteps to prison it’s
quite a legacy to inherit isn’t it well
legacy did you inherit and what are you
doing with it some of you might be here
and you’re like yon who cares
people with criminal histories I don’t
care if you care about our country I
hope that you care about the next
generation of children and perhaps you
don’t realize that nearly half of US
children actually have a parent who has
a criminal history and that’s why at
defy we don’t just teach
entrepreneurship but we actually teach
parenting so that our men can become the
parents that we need they’re role models
the entrepreneurs the employers the
employees the voices that our
communities need so much and that’s how
we’re reversing generations of
incarceration and violence and poverty
and many philanthropists like to fund
after-school kids programs for at-risk
youth and that’s great but I have yet to
ever see a single after-school Kids
program that is more effective than a
committed parent who’s teaching the
values to their own child that’s why we
do what we do at defy and how it’s not
just men we serve the ladies do so they
can become the proud mothers that they
have always wanted to be and
collectively this is our way of making
America great again don’t hate don’t
hate this is just a little prisoner I
thought it was sent to me and I thought
it was kind of funny so I’m gonna tell
you my story about how I got started in
this work when I was 12 years old a good
friend of mine was brutally murdered
I thought anyone in prison was like the
scum of the earth they could rot and die
in that place so I never thought I’d be
doing this I used to work in venture
capital and private equity and when I
was 26 and blonde I was invited on a
tour of a Texas prison and I found
myself surrounded by amazing human
potential people I believe our America’s
most overlooked talent pool biggest
underdogs and so I jumped ship from my
fancy New York private equity job I
moved to Texas I poured out
my whole bank account I had $50,000 into
starting what became prison
entrepreneurship program or PEP in Texas
and over the next five years under my
leadership we generated some of the
strongest results and prison
rehabilitation with a recidivism rate of
less than five percent I lived my life
for graduation day for half of our men
they’d never been in a cap and gown
before and we recruited their families
to celebrate one of the biggest
accomplishments of their lives and
before the graduation I had negotiated
with a warden for approval for our guys
to decorate these little teddy bear
t-shirts and then at one point in the
graduation ceremony I get our proud dads
up there on the stage armed with their
teddy bears and I would say to all the
kiddos in the audience if you see your
daddy up on stage right now run up to
him here’s a good gift to give you and
the dad said scoop their arms and their
kids into their arms and say I love you
and I will never leave you again so
another reason I do this work is because
of my love and appreciation of good
parenting but I’m no longer at PEP in
Texas I’m now at defy and I wish that I
could tell you that it’s because I’m an
aggressive social entrepreneur which is
true you wanted to bring national and
healing opportunities all over this
country but that question that I asked
you earlier became my story what would
it be like if you were only known for
that worst thing so I had been married
for nine years and at thirty-one I found
myself unexpectedly divorced something I
said would never happen and after
receiving my divorce papers I didn’t
handle myself in a way that made me
proud I ended up having some
relationships with people who had gotten
out of the Texas prison system a
decision I regret to this day I knew
better I was honest about my choices and
what I did was not illegal that it was a
bad leadership decision and when the
Texas Department of Criminal Justice
found out about my mistakes they forced
my resignation in the media nationally
so instead of being known for the good
work that I had poured my life into I
was not now known for what became a sex
scandal I was so covered in the thickest
wall of
shame that I didn’t want to live anymore
but what saved my life was that before
my story hit the news I sent out my
mistakes in a full disclosure letter to
her 7500 supporters who wrote back we
love you we stand with you you’ve always
preached grace in second chances what
are you doing next I don’t have a plan B
I don’t know I went through a whole lot
more therapy than I care to admit over
the next year I moved back to New York
City I got an offer to go back into
venture capital but I felt like a
sellout the minute that I got that offer
because I know why God has put me on
earth so seven years ago feeling as
insecure as ever what will people say
about me after this scandal
I found it defy ventures and defy is my
2.0 it’s my second chance to give second
chances some people say we’re in the
second-chance business but if you
actually knew the back stories of the
men and women that we serve you might
realize that we are more often in the
business of legitimate first chances so
what do we do at defy our program in
prison is called CEO of your new life
where we teach entrepreneurship an
employment readiness character
development reentry preparation and
family reunification we have a hundred
courses taught on video by some of the
nation’s best experts we’re so spoiled I
can’t even believe it Seth Godin Harvard
and Stanford MBA professors teaching our
people Preet Bharara who’s fired by
Trump is part of our volunteer faculty
and when our graduates finish defy they
average an eighth grade formal education
but our curriculum has been vetted by
Baylor University’s MBA program and when
they earn that certificate it ends up
being usually the proudest moment of
their lives and it’s that much sweeter
because it’s done in the presence of
their families who are so proud of them
this photo right here is of a Pelican
Bay State Prison solitary confinement
unit also called the Shu where we work
this is one of our business volunteers
providing business coaching right before
the shark tank in the Shu the warden at
Pelican Bay took a big risk on the day
of the graduation because he wanted
is meant to have a proper graduation in
a cap and gown he took them out of
solitary confinement and for some of our
men it was their first time seeing the
sky in 11 years and this man’s name is
Mike and he won the competition on that
day and he delivered proudly in front of
a very special guest her name is Eden
she’s his 19 year old daughter when Eden
was only nine years old her daddy was
locked up and this photo here is of the
first hug that she’s gotten to give her
dad in the last 10 years because before
that it was across four inches of glass
Eden said that her dad’s graduation was
the best day of her life
so the defi love doesn’t stop at the
prison walls when our men and women get
out of prison we hook them up with jobs
executive mentors we bring them on the
most amazing field trips to all these
companies like Google that photo is of
our grads up at Harvard Business School
being taught by the very best and we’ve
achieved our results by recruiting some
of the nation’s top leaders like Sheryl
Sandberg here in prison with us to turn
into advocates for prison reform we have
4,400 volunteers on a hoping to add to
the ranks today with all of you and
we’ve been recognized in all types of
media for second chances and nice
results and we were featured as one of
the 25 most disruptive companies of the
year in ink magazine were the only
nonprofit that made the list because we
have a 95 percent employment rate for
our men and women who are coming home
and a 3.2 percent recidivism rate which
I believe is the lowest of any prison
rehabilitation program in the country
and we’re saving taxpayers bundles of
money our cost per head for one
scholarship is only $500 compare that to
the cost that you California taxpayers
pay seventy two thousand dollars to lock
up one person for one year we’ve
incubated and financed 170 companies by
our released graduates their businesses
have been so successful that they have
created 370 job opportunities for other
release men and women I might tell you
about a couple of six
stories if we go back to the slide one
of our one of our graduates is in our
audience right now and he founded a
company called prison bars while doing
five years of prison time he came up
with this a recipe for criminally
delicious granola bars of which he sold
thousands throughout the country
and if I could show you on the slides if
your company needs any trade show
displays then you would see project
trade show look it up it’s the name of a
company in the Bay Area he’s made three
hundred thousand dollars in revenue in
just his first year out of prison ok
there’s stuff that sunberg right there
he’s in our audience and project trade
show we’re a proud customer of there’s
three hundred thousand dollars in
revenue and now I’d like to share with
you the success story of our best known
graduate costs hard day
we’re up two blocks away from here and
back in a day or you hear these sirens
drug mines actually coming up this
building we lived under the poverty line
my mom didn’t have much she worked in a
factory she would ask me you know what
do you want to do when you grow up and I
told him I want to be rich the first
opportunity that I had to become rich
was to the world of drug I started at
eleven smoking weed getting involved
heavily with coke and crack and I
started selling crack right on his back
we rode out to a multi-million dollar
company at the age of 19 I was making
over two million dollars a year 23 I was
charged with one of the largest drug
delivery services in New York City he
charged as a kingpin went into prison
the doctors told me that cholesterol
levels was so bad that I could have died
within five years I was sentenced to
seven years in prison and I said I was
not gonna die in prison I started doing
push-ups dips with the limited space
that I had and began moving
in lost 70 pounds in six months I caught
the eyes from other image helped over 20
M and Sue’s over a thousand pounds
combined and I came up with the idea
while I was in solitary confinement and
I wanted to create something special and
different so I came up with calm body
today we hire four men incarcerated
individuals I felt the same pain coming
home I couldn’t find a job everybody was
shutting the door behind me because of
my record giving them an opportunity and
a second chance started calm body and
now it’s taken off I want to help as
many formerly incarcerated people as
possible and give them a second chance
so sign up and join us come to the time
peace
thank you we felt costs raised $250,000
and he has 14,000 customers and this
year alone now we have served 2,500 IITs
that sends for entrepreneurs in training
what we call our people and our vision
is highly scalable we rolled out in 30
prisons all over the country and I just
recently turned 40 and this morning I
actually found out that I was given the
Forbes 40 over 40 award not sure how I
feel about that but anyway by the age of
53 I have plans to roll out defy in
every major prison in America and also
provide post release services everywhere
and since I know that some of the TEDx
audience is international here’s a photo
of defy where global ich in Kenya where
we’ve served in three prisons and what
keeps me up at night this right here is
a photo of women that I met in a
Brazilian prison we’re not serving there
yet
they’re incarcerated there with their
babies and they said to me please don’t
forget about me and I haven’t and nearly
every prison that I walk into I met with
people who say did you get my letters
I’ve been praying every day for a second
chance for an opportunity like this and
we have long wait lists to serve these
people who want nothing more than a
second chance I need some help sometimes
when people hear this message they say
I’m so inspired how am i great inspired
to do what so I’m about to try to close
you so please whip out your cell phones
because you won’t want to miss out if
you choose to come to prison with me you
will be met by the warmest audience of
budding entrepreneurs who have so much
energy and excitement for their new
futures where sometimes even a little
hip certainly unconventional and I would
love for you to come so we’re gonna do
another raise your hand thing get your
answer in your head right now because
I’m about to ask you are you gonna do
nothing are you gonna do something if I
give you a choice to do something that
you are perfectly capable of doing are
you gonna say yes all those of you who
are gonna do absolutely nothing after
hearing
this raise your hand right now the power
of fear pressure all right then on the
flipside all those of you if I give you
an option to do something that you’re
capable of doing how many of you are
gonna consider saying yes raise your
hands no alligator arms hold them up I
look around because that’s why I’m here
and see the difference that we can make
here through TEDx San Francisco alone
I’m really grateful for that so here’s
your menu please whip out your cell
phone you can come to prison with me or
you can provide a scholarship one
scholarship is $500 and if you provide
an opportunity to one person it will
result in this what Andrew said the
feeling was unexplainable to be able to
dance with my son on that stage he still
talks about it to this day how he was
able to hug me lots of times
thank you for helping me better myself
teaching me to become an entrepreneur
and reuniting me with my family my name
is Kat Hoch see hope conveniently choked
I actually do i I do Brazilian Jujitsu
for fun so you’ll remember choke at de 5
entries org and just write I’m in and
then tell me what you’re in for tell me
how many scholarships you can give
because some of you can do more than one
and come to prison and I will tell you
that I live for the day when I hear from
our defi kids I want to be just like my
daddy I’m gonna take over the family
business one day thank you very much
[Applause]
[Music]
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