 George Bruno with the 21 Report at the 21 Convention's Patriarch Edition, our first one 2019. And I'm talking with Bobby Dino. Welcome. Hey George, thanks for having me. Absolutely. How is the convention going for you so far? This is amazing. I didn't have, I'd been told what the convention was about and I'd seen things online and when I started writing and started getting notice for my writing, I really wanted to be involved with it just because I totally value the idea of the progression of men. That being said, I had no idea how awesome and what a great, fantastic thing Anthony Johnson has put together here. You can't really get a grasp on it until you see it. You start talking with these men, they start coming up to you, they start, well you know, but they, when they're talking with you and they're letting you know how important you've been in their life and how you've helped them overcome something, there's such a power and responsibility, even a duty. It's incredible. I'm just, I'm really glad to be here. Yeah, yeah. You're making a difference in guys' lives, whether you know it or not, with every tweet, everything you say, everything you write, every time you show up on stage, you're going to, I always tell guys that you never know what you're going to say, how it's going to affect somebody inside and spark something inside of them that's going to make them unrecognizable a year from now. Somebody might hear you speak on stage and you'll see them a year later and they might be 50 pounds lighter because you somehow encourage them, spark something inside of them where they start hitting the gym or somebody was on a depressive track and living in despair and you gave him new meaning, but you never know that those things are happening outside of our sight and we only see them maybe a year later or once a year at conventions like this. Yeah, interesting thing with this, when I started doing my writing and it really started blowing up to where it was just being read everywhere. When you have a website, you can see where people are downloading stuff and I mean, there were countries I didn't even know existed that people were reading, right? And I started getting these DMs and they were coming from literally all over the world. I went to Dubai, I'd get them from Russia and they were these questions mostly from young men that could identify with the fact of my back story of my father passing away before I was born and not having a dad, they identified with that factor and they would ask me, how do I be a man? How do I do this? How do I do that? And a lot of this stuff really made me like stop and kind of really think where I was at because I had taken all these things for granted. These were just things that I just do. And now I'm asking how do you do? How do I get that vibe or that energy to where nobody wants to mess with me? How do I get quick getting picked on? So as you're saying with not seeing results until maybe a year later, so you talk to these guys and they get back at you. Some of them get back at you. Some of them are just whatever, you know. And you'll hear these progress stories, oh hey, it's great, I'm doing this now. And yeah, I did what you said about leaving that toxic environment and doing this and it's so much better. And it's surreal. Because hey, most of these people you're helping if it's on social media, you're not right there with them. So they're telling you this and it's like, wow, so some guy in the UAE, I just helped him have a better life. That's incredible that we can do that. Yeah. What kind of things do you write about? So my background is from 2000 to 2010 I was incarcerated in California, California state prison system. I went in as this kid that was just without a father. My grandparents were trying to do the best they could to raise me, but they were old. And I was this kid that was always trying to pull the wool over their eyes, right? And I bumped my head off a lot of things, so to speak. I was like a pinball, you know, just constantly. And I ended up getting in some trouble. While I got in a fight with somebody, unfortunately, during that altercation, an innocent bystander got hurt. So now I've just messed up somebody's life that has nothing to do with what was going on. And so I paid the price for it. I went while I was in there, I was still dumb, picked up more time. And then about about five years in about halfway through, I had this revelation that if I don't change my life, I'm going to die in here. Like I'm not going to get out. If I keep thinking that I need to be part of this clique, like everything in prison is very racial. So if I need to be part of this group and do what they say, and that's essentially my life that's going down the toilet. So about halfway through, I had to tell those guys at a very serious risk of personal injury or death that I wasn't going to be part of their group anymore. I did. I was on my own at that point. And I started planning my life. So when I came home, I had the mindset that I was going to be successful. But I also had the mindset that I didn't want anyone to know where I was at. So I would tell my wife, don't tell anyone. Even my daughter knew. My daughter is eight now. But even as she was younger, she knew, don't say prison, don't say where daddy was. And then I was counseled by some mentors that if you really want to embrace who you are and really want to move forward and help people, you need to embrace everything from your past. So I started at the behest of my wife. She said, it might be good for you to write down some of these stories you've told me about what happens in there, right? No, you're a great writer. You're a great writer, honey. Do it. Write it down. Oh, OK. So I wrote it. And then she said, maybe you release them. Let people see them. I said, OK, we'll try it, right? And that very first post that I released on social media, I even wrote something along with it like, I'm going to probably lose all my followers right now. But here you go. The exact opposite happened. Ed Latimore retweeted it, Alexander Cortez retweeted it, Ivan Throne, all these different people just started. This is the group. I can't believe what I'm reading. And it blew up in September of last year. I had 120 followers and I have about 8000 now. I mean, it just, yeah, it just, it was crazy. So people, I know that there's an entertainment value to the story. People like, you know, the true crime and the prison type stuff. But in each one of these, there's some kind of lesson. And there are people that get it and they appreciate that. And that's who I'm reaching out to is that you don't have to bump your head up against things and possibly even be incarcerated. You can learn from what you read and stay away. How did you get involved with 21? So that's interesting because I was very interested in 21. Like when I first came on to the social media scene and saw what was going on there, I thought, wow, that's really great. That's something that's excellent. But I didn't think seeing what the other speakers, what they did and who they were and their history and the organization and all that. I didn't really think that that was something that was going to happen. I haven't thrown who's become a great friend of mine, someone I talk to and text with every day. He was saying, you have to go to this. You have to go to this. One day I get a DM from Anthony Johnson saying, hey, there's a few people that are telling me that you should come and speak at this convention. Would you come? Absolutely. It was just out of the, it was one of those things to where it just manifested. Yeah. Yeah. And boy, am I glad that it did. Yeah. Yeah. So as far as your experience here now with the Patriarch edition of the 21 convention, how do you feel you fit in? It's interesting because I'm pretty sure there's not anybody here with my back story or at least not anybody that's speaking that has had the same kind of situation. But that being said, I feel that I fit in as a man that's trying to help other men. I feel that while we all have our strengths, like you're talking about your trade as a barber, my trade, when I came home, I was a mill ride. I worked in oil refineries. But we have these strengths that we come with or these trades or skills. But it's all this whole that's being filled by men who are helping other men. I feel, I felt nothing but just a welcomeness and love from everyone. How does a man start over after you, after you had someone else control your life for 10 years, tell you when to rise, when to go to sleep, when to eat, when to shit. How does a man start life over again? How do you do that? I feel, obviously, one is very more honorable than the other, but I feel that life in the military and life in prison is very similar for what you're saying. You have somebody telling you when to do this and when to do that and when to eat. However, one is very honorable to get into and the other one, you have to do something bad to get there. So automatically, you kind of have two different mindsets right off the bat. I feel that the best way for someone to start over is to assess what they want to be, essentially taking responsibility for their or accountability for their lives and saying, what I'm doing now isn't working. I want to be here, however I'm here. And I think that you need to make a plan and not a wish list. People I think get plans and wish lists messed up. I want to be a race car driver. Okay, well that's a wish. That's there's no plan there. How are you going to get to that? If you're able to do that and you're coming from a mindset of accountability to where I need to be accountable for my actions and for what's going to happen in my life and you make a plan, you can come back from it. One of the saddest misconceptions and one of the reasons why the institutional recidivism rate is so high sits at about 67% right now, which means essentially three people get out to go back. One of the reasons why it sits that high is because these men, and I know from experience because I was told the same thing, they think that there are no opportunities for them when they come home, none. Your parole officer is going to try and get you messed up and thrown back in prison. No job will hire you. Nobody's going to like you. While some people may have experienced those type of things, that is not what it has to be. I believe largely that you create your own reality, you're in charge of your own destiny. I believe that if you have a plan and follow through with your plan that you will manifest. And I believe that anyone can do that, prisoner, anybody. Give some hope to the guy who's made some mistakes and might even need a third chance. Not just a second chance, but a third chance. Talk to him. If you are incarcerated, if you know somebody that's incarcerated, the best thing to do is realize that hope is not lost. The institutions are places largely of despair. There's no hope. Nobody's just in a bad, crappy mood and you develop a mindset of despair. The real world, you don't need to do that. You're living in a bubble and that's what you experience in that bubble. The reality is that if you accept responsibility for your actions, take accountability and then commit to a plan, you will manifest that plan. While you're thinking, oh, the parole officers, oh, this or that, when people see that you're doing good, they usually want to help. They usually want to continue, they like seeing that. People like seeing other people make it. For the most part, you might have some haters, but for the most part, people like seeing people make it. If you commit and follow through with your plan, you will most likely have a lot of people behind you and you will experience success. I did it. I did it because I accepted responsibility. Everything was my fault, good and bad and I committed to making my life a positive force and it's happened. I'm sitting here with the man, with George Bruno right now. It can be done. I'm proof. That's good. Let's talk about the shaved head. The one that's just dripping. When did you start shaving your head? So it was kind of interesting. I'm originally from Orange County and growing up, I was in rock bands and I like to go to the beach so I kind of had this long hair. When I went into the institution, probably from stress, all of a sudden it started coming out of the back and one day this guy giving me a hard time, he says, hey, why are you growing your hair so long when you got a bald spot in the back? I said, I don't have a bald spot. Yeah, you do go look in the mirror. So then I'm looking and I'm going, oh crap. And once I saw that, I just went into my mind to where I said, I'm not going to be some bald looking like a monk. So I started shaving it then and just didn't stop. Nowadays I shouldn't say shave, I use an electric razor, I'm a little bit more 21st century. It's just one of those things to where it was probably more out of vanity than anything else. It works. Well, thank you. It works. Okay, or every couple days? Every couple days. Okay. Yeah. Okay. And then how long have you had the beard? Beards a new development. So my wife and my daughter, they've both told me, we like you with the stubble, right? So I said, okay, I'll have some stubble. And then they said, you should try a beard. I said, ah, I don't want a beard. My grandfather was a Marine Corps officer and he was very, I couldn't have any facial hair growing up. I was hippy stuff. So that's always been in my mind to where I've just always been clean-shaven. And if I did have stubble, it was because I was being lazy. They had convinced me, oh, you should do it. It looks good. Okay. I started growing it out and all of a sudden I'm getting comments from everybody. Hey, nice beard. Nice beard. Oh, that looks good. So I said, oh, well, they put once again, they put me onto something good. Yeah. It's a good combination. The shaved head and the groomed beard that just kind of fades up like that. I mean, it's just, it's a nice look. It works. Well, thank you. Absolutely. Oh, we're getting some good thunder. This is really good thunder. God agrees. So what is the future for Bobby Dino? So the future now, I'm continuing to write. If you go to bobbydino.com, I have a blog there to where you can read a lot of these prison articles and read these stories. I've also just incorporated a nonprofit in California for at risk youth and young and recently released youth and young adults. And it's to help them do what we're talking about. Show them that there are options. If they want to do continuing education, they can do that vocation. Some people aren't meant for school. We need welders. We need plumbers. There's grants that are going to be offered to help with education as well. So while I've been writing, I've always, from when I've been in there and saw what happened with a lot of those young kids, this has been on my heart since I've been in prison that I wanted to do something when I came home. So this has taken up so much of my time and a lot of my money, too, because, you know, lawyers and accountants don't work for free and you use those when you're making a nonprofit. But that being said, it's something that's on my heart and that's what we're going to work towards. Excellent. Great to get to know you. I was looking forward to it. I know. Me, too. And this is fun. I think there's a future for you. Well, thank you. I appreciate that. I appreciate that, George. Thank you. Pleasure. Thank you.