September 01, 2020

32. From Solitary to Service with Coss Marte (How a drug dealer earning $5M/year built a fitness empire from his prison cell) | Win the Day podcast

50 minutes

Episode 32: From Solitary to Service with Coss Marte

“Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill

At 11 years old, Coss Marte began using drugs. At 13, he was selling crack on the streets to make ends meet. With a lack of positive role models, and an environment riddled with crime, there were few legitimate avenues available to him. Yet, despite regularly witnessing extreme acts of violence, Coss survived as he inched his way up the food chain.

At 19, he found himself at the helm of one of the largest drug delivery services in New York City. Through a team of more than two dozen couriers, dispatchers and street soldiers, Coss distributed vast quantities of cocaine and marijuana to all segments of society – from public housing residents to cops, judges and doctors, but especially Wall Street executives who had the salaries to match their insatiable appetite for his product.

At its peak, the business was earning more than $5 million a year. Coss’ drug venture was so successful that he needed eight mobile phones just to store the sheer number of customer contacts.

Eventually, the law caught up with him, and 23-year-old Coss was sentenced to prison and forced to turnover all proceeds from his criminal enterprise. It was the latest and most severe of a string of arrests that had seen him incarcerated 10 times since he first began dealing.

While in prison, a series of events forced Coss to take ownership of his life, and he began his road to redemption – only this time as a fitness entrepreneur.

Since being released, Coss has trained 50,000+ people from around the world. He’s an author, a TEDx speaker and recently launched a crowdfund for a nonprofit that helps equip formerly incarcerated people with the skills to succeed in the digital world so they don’t need to return to a life of crime.

In this interview, we talk about:

What it was like selling crack on the streets of New York City during its darkest days

How he built a drug empire as a 19-year-old earning $5M a year

How to survive in one of the toughest prisons in the country

The one book that finally led to him taking ownership of his life

How he created a fitness empire from solitary confinement

And a whole lot more.

If you want to know how to succeed when life feels hopeless, this is the interview for you!

YouTube version: https://youtu.be/tDfXT6nJ61U

Blog version: https://jameswhitt.com/from-solitary-to-service-with-coss-marte

Show links:

💪 ConBody:

https://conbody.com

🎧 Ex-Dealer, Ex-Junkie Podcast:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ex-dealer-ex-junkie/id1493490245

💚 Second Chance Studios:

https://kickstarter.com/projects/secondchancestudios/second-chance-studios

📚 ConBody the book:

https://amzn.to/3hPqEbq

🎤 TEDx Talk:

https://youtu.be/3npsu-wnL6o

📸 Coss Marte on Instagram:

https://instagram.com/cossmarte

Connect with James:

IG: @jameswhitt | Web: https://jameswhitt.com

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By James Whittaker

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