One Idea Can Change Your Life

Larry Weidel: I am with best-selling author Casey Diaz who will be speaking about his life and recovery from being raised deep in the gang life.

When you become a big celebrity, you go to a big event or have a big success, and when you come back, having the right kind of staff around you to get your mind back in reality and engaged in real-world things is important.

If you look at the music industry, a lot of rock stars, their managers, and their support teams were taking drugs and getting drunk the same time the band was. They were making it worse.

You’ve got to have people around you who have their feet on the ground, otherwise, you’re going to be floating into space.

I think when we condemn a lot of the people that have been in the spotlight over the years, part of their going off the rails was that they did not have the right kind of staff around them to help them keep on track for the kind of values that mattered.

Please talk about having the right kind of support, stability, and cocoon around you.

Casey Diaz: My wife and my friends told me that I have a good voice and that we should start a podcast. That became another place of income for me throughout this time.

You listen to sound advice from these people. You listen to their heartbeats. I remember growing up, and my mom would always say, “Tell me who you hang out with. I’ll tell you who you are.” That’s probably a resounding quote that all of us heard at some point.

It’s an absolute truth because who you hang out with is who you really become.

Hanging out and having a circle of influence that’s healthy, that motivates you, that cores into your life–they’re looking out for you. A lot of us make the mistake of surrounding ourselves with a losing mentality with friends.

There’s a time where you need to cut certain people out of your life. I’m a big believer in that. You have to get rid of some people. You can’t be toying around with certain individuals.

You need healthy people to surround your life to continue a successful life.

LW: As long as you keep growing yourself, pruning these people, situations, and activities out of your life happens naturally because you’re just too busy for them. You have more important things.

You’re going faster down the road, and they just can’t keep up. If they can’t stay in the same group, they’re just going to be left behind. It’s better to just leave them behind rather than having to say, “You can’t call me anymore.”

That doesn’t work. Fill your life with positive things and keep moving forward.

The other thing I wanted to ask you about is the idea that one idea can change your life.

I know your faith is important to you. You and I are both Christians. We’re not going to apologize for it, but we’re not going to ram it down people’s throats.

We’re also not going to hide it, but you were in the deepest of solitary confinement, but one idea or one phrase can change your life.

Nobody even knew you were there. This one lady from a church down in LA would ride all day up to this supermax and go around, meet, and talk with the prisoners.

Even she couldn’t see you in solitary, but you could hear the voices. She noticed behind the door and asked the guard if somebody was behind that door.

That was where you were. With the power of voice and ideas, one idea can change your life. Something drove her.

What did she say to you through the supermax when you were in the solitary?

CD: She said, “Jesus loves you, and he’s gonna use you.”

I didn’t know any better, and I didn’t want anything to do with that religion or whatever she was trying to sell me at that point.

Those words after I become a Christian rang so deeply in my heart. There are specific words that people will speak into your life, and you have to have an open mind with your ears open to see what they’re really trying to say.

Here we are, decades later and those simple words—”Jesus is going to use you”—are now being fulfilled.

Sometimes you have to slow your role, pump the brakes, and take time to listen to what people are saying and speaking into your life because it’s important.

LW: You cannot underestimate words. For example, in business, something that driven me are the things I heard early on in business that totally gave me focus on how to move forward.

Ideas are a dime a dozen, but the people who use them are priceless. Great ideas don’t care who uses them.

That’s the motivation behind my Monday morning calls.

If somebody’s beating me, they’ve probably got a great idea that I need to know about. Then if find out what that idea is, the greatest favor I can do for them is use their idea and beat them with it.

That’ll keep them from getting lazy. You gotta be specific to be dynamic.

If you’ve got an expensive car, and it doesn’t run, you got to lift up the hood and find out why isn’t it running, and go find that missing part.

CD: There are some times when I wake up, I feel like I’m in a hard place and struggle in life. But those words give me strength.

God used words to hang the stars. God used words to create. Listen to the words that are coming through those circles of influence in your life.

LW: There’s the positive and negative.

My son is a disciplinarian on this. It’s easy to get frustrated and put negative aspersions on people. But every time I do that about politics or something, he says, “No, we don’t need to hear that.”

What good is it going to do?

When you say negative things, it makes you feel bad. So let’s don’t go there and waste the time.

Shut your mouth, and focus. Say something that could make an impact for good.

CD: Yes. You are right. These are reminders we all need from time to time. One benefit is if you have the right people around you, they will call you back to the line.

LW: Casey, what’s the name of your podcast?

CD: It’s The Shot Caller podcast, and it’s on iHeartRadio, Apple, Anchors, and Spotify. It’s on every platform.

Click here to listen to the Million Dollar Mastermind Podcast episode #184 with Casey Diaz!