Unbreakable w/ Jay Glazer - Marion Jones

That's a pretty good way to intro our. Next guest Marion Jones, who has one time labeled the fastest woman alive, had five medals you have to correct me, five Olympic medals and life Firal.

of time, Jay, like like what's next? Like where am I going after all of this? You know, what does redemption look like for me? And then you just grind and you bounce back and you pick yourself up and you figure it out and you learn tools on not only how to cope, but how to push through even further. And so that's where we're at now. Yes, So you know, alongside my friend and business partner Susanne Evans, we've launched

Second Wind, which launched on March the eighteenth. Again, really, what it is is a podcast for everybody, Jay, It's for people whom again have caught a bad break. I've made a poor choice, which I think encompasses most people on this earth, right, and you're right, and then you come back and your second win, and so we chat with entrepreneurs and celebrities and athletes and people whom I feel like are on their second win and have just

a really inspiring story to share. And it's been something that has been in my wheelhouse for many years and it's come to fruition this year and I'm so excited about it.

not my opinion. This is the fact that from the time I was an age group tracked to the time when I decided to step away from the sport, I was dominating and there was a certain amount of time in that were you know, twenty twenty one, twenty two years old, right and right like the world is on a silver platter to me, and I'm making choices in regards to whom I'm surrounding myself with. And it's one of the things I tell my clients and that I

share with young people and young aspiring athletes. Be very careful, as you know, Jay, the company that you keep and surround yourself with people who are going to lift you up and not just try and take from you. And it's very easy when you're that age and you're making a lot of money, A lot.

having been given certain stuff. Yes, all right, And so I always like to clear up though, j when we're sharing the story, like the facts of it, and that is that like in all of it, like, did I sit down and take anything like knowingly thinking that that was going to make me faster? The answer is no, besides what I thought was all natural. Right now, My issue, right, and I like to clear this up for people don't know the story or don't remember the story or whatever.

My issue is that I made choices years later to lie about what I was given once I found out what it was, and I lied to federal investigators, which is always a no no, right, And because of that, Jake, right, I accepted my sentence of six months incarceration. But again, like there's no excuses, like I messed up, paid the consequences. But you know, I like to say, man, do I

wish I could go back and do things slightly different? Sure, but I would be right as you Jay, You wouldn't be the man that you are today without having gone through some shit, and I would not be the woman that I am today without the same. And so in a way, in a really fed up, odd type of way,

I am grateful for the hiccups. I'm grateful for the bumps because one you quickly realized who your true circle is, right when you have nothing to provide for them, right except who you are, Right Like there was a period of time where there was no gifts being shared, right, there's no success being had, and the people who were through it with me through it all and are with mouth like, those are the people you hang on to.

So just I always always like to give that little bit of a bit of information, Jack, I love that because people.

But I never talked about it. I always talk about the shit I've overcome, you know, the grind and the grind and the grind and the grind in the hours of work when people don't see your you know, training guys with twelve ruptures on my back and you know, breaking my nose seven times and my help. The scars are that's our equity and we all have them, I mean, so for you to embrace them, I think it's amazing

that you do it. What got you to because a lot of people resentment, resentful of their scars and their experiences. What was the pivot for you to go? You know what, I can either be you know, just curious that this all happened. Ark he used to be of service. What was that pivot for you?

But I also think that you know, you realize that, oh I do at least that I must have just been because I'm a believer, right like, and I think that you're not ever given more than what you can handle. I also think that my background in sport at the highest level has kind of given me certain tools to handle stress and to handle hard times. And that's not to say that everybody who wasn't an athlete can't, of course, but I think that I have a leg up and

advantage when it comes to that. But right, like, that's my life, right, Like I teach my clients now, you need to embrace the discomfort, right because that's when the true growth happens. Right if you're like, oh this hurts.

I'm starting to focus on an endurance sport which I know nothing about, right, Like my sport of choice was quick move here, and so the idea, at the age of fifty, I'm going to tackle a sport that I've had so much respect for for decades, and endurance fort So I mentioned the word fuel because that's all that triathletes talk about, making sure you fuel your workouts, making

sure you fuel your competition. But now like making sure that I fuel my community, right, like I give them the tools on how to not only hope with their shits right, like base it head on and deal with it, but like move forward. And when was that necessary moment for me when I realized that either they are effed over or they make choices to do it to themselves. It's resonates with everybody. It's not just women, it's not

just people of color, like whatever, it's everybody. And so like this idea that my story which is very personal, and there's moments even when I sit and I'm like, man, the amount of people that I think need to hear it are hearing it, and they're like, yeasty, stuck in our off failure is not forever. Our setbacks And it's kind of my mantra now, Jay, like, our setbacks can be the catalyst for our biggest comeback in life. Right,

you don't have to stay there. I hate it. I'll tell you I hate it when I hear people say, oh, I don't know way out, like I don't know a way okay. First is for you to look in the mirror, right and for you to say yes, like I made a mess of this situation. I acknowledge it. You apologize you do whatever you gotta do with your people, with your family. Let's handle it, like, what are the tools to get you out of your stuff?

She came to this country to create a better life for herself and her two kids, my older brother and I. So I didn't have a father figure in the house. So when I decided right, I graduated from college, I had a lot of success. And again success hit me very fast. At the age of twenty one years old. I was a young student athlete at the University of North Carolina, and when I graduated, like success hit me like that. In regards to money, in regards to fame,

in regards to man, I'm I'm physically gifted. I'm being able to use this for all of this. And I find that at that time, right when people are telling you how great you are, how great you are marrying and patting you on the back, and they become yes people, you know what I mean? Those are people that are gonna say yes to you, no matter what do you

call them jags? Right, and you start to be like, oh this and you distance yourself from the people in your life who're going to give it to you straight and is probably, you know, success happening so fast me was probably the worst thing that could happen as opposed to it be a slow, hard climb right now, hit me so fast? And so because of that, I can identify like certain reasons why and and all of that.

journey has been. But with a team sport and a national championship, it has created a a sisterhood, right, that is unbreakable. We celebrated our thirty plus year anniversary, which is crazy again to think Jay incredible, Like, if I get those thirteen other women next to me right now, it'll feel like I'm seventeen, eighteen years old. It is an incredible moment. Anyways, Yeah, that's that's a special special time for me before the chaos and crazy of life began.

so that there's no more distractions in the day. I'm not opening mail and sing something. I'm not opening up the paper back then and seeing something. Right, there was no social media, thankfully, I'm a jeep lover. So I'd sit in my jeep and I'd flip down my visor Jay, and I'd look at myself in that mirror. I'm by myself, and I'd say, marrying, who's gonna show up today? Is anybody in the world going to train better than you? Harder than you, faster than you, smarter than you? I

would flip it down. I'd make my way out to the track. Two, three, four hours later, I get back in the jeep, open up the visor, and I will tell you in this, in the career span of over a decade, right, and I'm being honest with you, I open up that visor and a no more than a handful of five times. Right. I looked at myself and I was like, nobody today, right, nobody today. Now, I don't know why those five times?

But we all have our strengths in life, right, and it's our responsibility we've been once, we've been handed them at birth, to research it, to work on it, to make it better, to impact more people. And I'm always like, oh, did you do it today? Did you did you put in the hour today? Even now, No, it's not like training at the level that I did before, although now it is for a triathlete a little bit, but now it's other things. It's impacting the lives of the people

in my community. We have social media, which has been a whole other beast and having to figure out now Jay, Like we didn't grow up with that shit, right. I wish we could go back in time, right and like.

I had to figure that out during COVID. I'm also a trainer, like love health. I love fitness, you know, I love wellness. And I was a trainer for a lot number of years. And COVID hit and my background and technology, I didn't grow up with the computer in my house, right, like we used to have the little uh I don't know, the cameras where you would take to Walgreens and they you know those type and so yeah.

this opportunity? Right? And so when COVID hit and I couldn't be in person with clients, right, And I'm like, you mean I have the idea and the ability now to train people from around the world, right, like.

The difference. I was up at four forty five this morning and I have my other thing, like I have the podcast, and I have my business of training entrepreneurs, but I still double in my fitness training. I was up in four forty five because I love it. Find your passion and don't let anybody like say you can't

do it. You know, all those type of things. Anyways, you can hear them, like when we talk about certain stuff that you can hear that I'm just passionate about and it exudes from me and I tell my clients that if if you don't have a passion, if you're not selling something that you love, that you'd be okay with not making any money making zooed from your pores when you walk into the room, Do you have a certain confidence about you before.

be stuck. You don't care who you are. You don't care if you're on the cover of Vogue magazine and lost it all right, there's still something incredible about you that the world should hear and just make it happen. So that's so when.

That is my stress reliever. And I don't care if you keep me in solitary, which I was for forty nine days, right, if you keep me stuck in a small space, unless you put me in a sharp cage, right, I'm gonna Jay. And I became friends with the guards and they would slit me an extra peanut butter and banana to make sure I had some fuel. Right anyway, But in those quiet, dark, hard times, I like to say, I and was able to reflect because things before I

was on this wave. Right, listen to this example. I'm on this wave and it just takes you further and further out sometimes where you can't touch the bottom and you're just kind of treading and you're kind of existing and surviving and you're moving away from like the reality of the ground and the earth, right, and so you're making decisions and it's quick and you're not right. But now, like the wave that had brought me back, and I'm on the shore and I'm like, you know what, how

did I get to be to this? How did I get here? Right? But more important, like what was my mother?

I don't care. I'm going to do it. I don't know what the future holds, but I know it's got to be better than where I'm at right now. And that was my inspiration, right, that one right, like the dream that my mom had, right for her babies, right to be a success, to make a real impact in this life was not going to go unheard, right, And that was my fuel, really, And it was the first time. And I give the story about the wave and the

treading water so you can get some context. I'm moving fast and there's chaos and I needed I needed a moment of stillness, right, And it was prison for me. I hope. My hope is that it's not for others, right, But that's for me. Sometimes you just need to be like you need your you can slow your ass damp and you need to get away from that world of chaos and say, okay, who am I? But more importantly, who do I want to be? Who do I want to be in this world? Right? Do I want to

just be remembered as the fast? To me, it's like the idea of being remembered as the fastest woman in the world. There was a time, Jay, when I was like, yeah, that's what I want to be remembered at. Right when when you're and you get to a certain age where you're like, man, I want to be remembered for like a human who sacrificed and like made real impact in the lives of people. Like you get to a place in your life when that is what you aspire to do and to be and that is to me and

people will say it's so true. I mean it is. It is the feeling that knowing that, like, Okay, I had to go through stuff and my time away and from what I've had to deal with with the public and like fighting for my name back and like all that type of stuff and my reputation. It's been a hard wood.

hear it. And I'm patient. And I put into time right, and I nurtured myself and I grew, and I nurtured my family and they grow right and and and then now all of a sudden, I get a call, Hey, you want to be on Special Forces, which is just an incredible show that I was on last this past year. It's on Hulu now, the World's Toughest Task. Like that's not just that's me putting in the work. That's God. But like all those those type of things don't just happen.

And then from there it's a catalyst for something else. And it's the podcast, and it's the triathlon, and it's all these different things, and it just lines up because I put in the time and it was hard.

on the books. They're hustle, right, They they help with laundry, right, they sew, they cook, they do all these little things right to make money if they don't have a support system to put money on their books. Also, in a lot of these institutions, right, there's theft, and so you don't necessarily want to stand at the washer and dryer for two hours, so you hire somebody with it who's trying to make money, which I quickly realized like that was the thing. I don't want I stealing my stuff,

So you hire somebody to do your lune. Well, I find and I worked out Jay while I was there, and so I had a few different like sweatsuits, but I call it that all right. And all of a sudden, Jay, I'm realizing, like I don't have a s my sweat sure they're coming up missing, and I'm still paying out via commissary this individual and so like I'm trying to navigate the prison system. I don't have any history of it. Nobody in my family ever has. So I learned when

you get in there. And so I'm like, all right, well, how am I going to like bring this up to this person without offending anybody? Right? And so I decided one you don't do it around a lot of people, right, like anybody, you do it one on one. So one day the young lady and I asked her gently. I was like, you know, I didn't ask her. I was like, you know what I think. I think I'm going to start to do my own laundry, right like, just like that,

like you know, thank you, and I'll finish paying you. Well, she took offense. Why because that's her last through your hood. I also found out a little bit later she was on some some meds and stuff. She hadn't been taking them. So there was an altercation, right, and I ran out of the room after there was some as we back in the day used to say, fist the cuffs, fist the cuffs, and I ran to the guard. She was bleeding all kinds of stuff and because of that, we

got taken across the street to High security. I was putting the shoe. If you know with you know a federal institution that's lock up twenty three out of twenty four hours a day. And because it was her word versus my word, they had to do an investigation. And so forty nine days later I was able.

days in the shoe. They were tough, but hey, yeah, like it all right?

for a sentence of probation, fines, et cetera. And three hours later, I looked to my left and right my legal team, and I had to ask them, did he did this guy just say six months locked up? Like like I couldn't even fathom it, Jay, Right, Like, even though you knew it was on the table, right, like everybody's like marrying, don't even don't even like you're not going to go to p like no other athlete like this a whole other story, no nobody else who was

involved in any of this. Right, it's not going to happen. And I had to look to my left and I was like, I was just done. You're just donned. I don't know. At that point, I had two little boys, two kids. Now I have three beautiful kids who are

almost grown now. But man, I'm like what. So after that, in that moment of just being in shock, I walk out of the courtroom and I walked down the steps and there are, however, maybe felt like a thousand cameras waiting for a statement from me, and I could have easily just kind of like been ushered to the car, and I was like, no, right, like the world embraced me. I'll tell you, the world embraced me. Right, they put

me on every cover of every magazine. Talk but right, it is my responsibility to step up now and do the right thing right and share with the world what happened that I'm sorry for it. And my unbreakable moment is when I stood in front of that microphone and I shared with the world that I had made poor choices. But my unbreakable moment was not just that. It was my mom's hand on my shoulder right like, giving me comfort and support, whispering in my ear You've got this,

I'm here. We're going to get through this. And that was the moments. As hard as it was Jay to know that my rep everything at that moment would change forever, but feeling her hand on my shoulder, knowing that she loves me no matter what, and if my mama tells me that we're going to get through this, we're going to get through this.