Have you ever questioned how faith and business can coincide? What happens when an ex-convict, a religious business partner, and the dream of a new restaurant venture come together? Today, we take you on a riveting journey, the story of James, who faced the daunting task of opening Kairos Kafe amidst personal turmoil, family dynamics, and mounting debt.
This is more than just a business saga; it's a tale of resilience, faith, and the unwavering spirit of entrepreneurship. The complexities of James's story are hard to fathom. From juggling multiple jobs to the trials of finding a new home due to a criminal record, it's a testament to his indomitable spirit. But that's not all. Confronted with the challenge of his business partner, Steve, imposing religion onto the staff of Kairos, James's journey raises questions about the thin line separating faith from professionalism.
Through the rollercoaster of his life, James's story is a beacon of hope and inspiration. Despite the adversities, he managed to turn things around, ingeniously using an email newsletter to promote Kairos Kafe. But perhaps, the most transformative aspect of his journey is his newfound purpose - to positively impact his staff's lives. So, gear up to explore James's world, full of struggles and triumphs, lessons learnt, and the drive to make a difference.
More from James & Haley:
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Have you ever questioned how faith and business can coincide? What happens when an ex-convict, a religious business partner, and the dream of a new restaurant venture come together? Today, we take you on a riveting journey, the story of James, who faced the daunting task of opening Kairos Kafe amidst personal turmoil, family dynamics, and mounting debt.
This is more than just a business saga; it's a tale of resilience, faith, and the unwavering spirit of entrepreneurship. The complexities of James's story are hard to fathom. From juggling multiple jobs to the trials of finding a new home due to a criminal record, it's a testament to his indomitable spirit. But that's not all. Confronted with the challenge of his business partner, Steve, imposing religion onto the staff of Kairos, James's journey raises questions about the thin line separating faith from professionalism.
Through the rollercoaster of his life, James's story is a beacon of hope and inspiration. Despite the adversities, he managed to turn things around, ingeniously using an email newsletter to promote Kairos Kafe. But perhaps, the most transformative aspect of his journey is his newfound purpose - to positively impact his staff's lives. So, gear up to explore James's world, full of struggles and triumphs, lessons learnt, and the drive to make a difference.
More from James & Haley:
Support our Sponsors
Hurst Towing and Recovery -Lynn & Debbie Hurst
205-631-8697 (205-631-TOWS)
https://hursttowing.com/
Home & Commercial Services
Call or text 205-798-0635
email office@hollandhcs.com
Instagram Home & Commercial Services
Crossfit Mephobia - Hayden Setser
CrossFitmephobiainfo@gmail.com
256-303-1873
https://www.instagram.com/crossfitmephobia/
Dana Belcher - RE/MAX Advantage North
Website: theiconagents.com
email: danabelcheragent@gmail.com
Call or text 205-910-3358
Well, hey guys, thanks for tuning in to the Straight Out of Prison podcast. My name is James Jones and this is my Story.
Speaker 2:And this is Hailey Jones and this is his story that has now become a part of my Story Girl. We got a story and actually I would have to say that last episode we talked about Kyros. We introduced Kyros and just a journey. Yeah, getting started there, which you know the intro. We always say your story has become a part of my Story and really that all started with Kyros, because that's how we met. That's how we met, so that's kind of where we're getting there.
Speaker 1:That's one super lining and all that.
Speaker 1:I mean yeah and I went back and listened to the last couple of episodes and I feel like gosh, I was just being so like negative, but it's the truth of where I was and what I was going through. It was not. I guess what should have been a very happy time for me was a very miserable time for me because of all the stuff with the girl and with Sean and her family. And then you know, opening a business in restaurants hard anyways, but then you add all that stuff on top of it, it's just ugh.
Speaker 2:Well, you were pushing through a lot of obstacles too, and I think everybody can relate. I think this is what the storytelling is all about is that it's your story from your perspective and what you are experiencing, and feeling at the time and so therefore it's very, you know, just authentic and I know we mentioned last time, but it's crazy when you're telling the story even after we record, like in our daily lives, I can feel you in that same place of whatever it is we were talking about.
Speaker 1:I have been, actually the last couple of weeks since we taped the last two, like I've even been like film. I mean I catch myself because I'm a little, I'm aware. But like if you say, hey, can you take out the trash or something, I'm like don't tell me what to do, you don't, don't control me. It's like I'm back in that place where I'm like, but there was like a narrative that was fed to me at that time by my leaders that you know you're just messed up.
Speaker 1:You don't know how to cooperate. You need to. You need all this, all these things which only ended up making me feel like a project. But now, on the other side of that, you know, 15 years later, it's there was a lot of stuff that happened in that time that shouldn't happen, like that's whole situation. That whole scenario shouldn't have gone the way it did.
Speaker 2:Well, hindsight is 2020 for sure, and I have to say, though I mean all of the struggle that this was, there was a lot of positive, oh yeah. I mean, we've talked about multiple times, just even before we started doing this podcast, that if you hadn't gone through all of that or walked that journey, that path, that way, yeah, I wouldn't be sitting here right now. Right, you wouldn't be sitting here, like we wouldn't have met, you know, or our kids wouldn't be here. So there's so, like many, like golden nuggets.
Speaker 1:I don't know it is and it gets better. I mean you know we get through the hard part, though you know I learned enough about during the season, about running a business, to write 10 and 12 books, honestly. I mean just things that I still care with me to this day, things we use in our business now, but it was a, it was a burden, it was a hard time.
Speaker 2:So I don't know if this is the time to say it Maybe I'm saying this prematurely, I don't know but you know, in our talks we've had once again, before we started recording this podcast at all, you had mentioned that you know you'd been in prison. I mean, this is straight out of prison, yeah, and all that came with that. But then, just as you have like, reflected and looked back that you felt this Cairo's journey or the Cairo's restaurant and all that kind of that entailed. You felt like you were in a second prison.
Speaker 1:Let's get to that. One Get to that.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Premature, all right, no, but it did. In a way it became. It became a burden and a pain and just a trial to endure and I was very similar to being in prison.
Speaker 2:I don't want to take away any like responsibility, not that you were put in prison because you made a lot of those decisions that got you. Oh yeah, which is what you were saying.
Speaker 1:You've learned so much you know through the process, so let's go back to January 2007 and we'll walk through, you know, first year or so of being in business.
Speaker 2:Okay, so January 2007,. That's when you opened the doors to Cairo's.
Speaker 1:No, you details are not.
Speaker 2:Sorry, I didn't ever know those details. This is true.
Speaker 1:It's so funny, I can tell your family's stories that were told to me by your mom. Better than you can and legit, I'm sitting here.
Speaker 2:We're sitting here looking at a whiteboard. I'm not going to lie with notes right now, but I mean my mind just like gets jumbled up, Okay so we opened last episode.
Speaker 1:We opened Cairo's cafe, cairo's catering, the first week of December 2006, against my will, you know I kind of got pushed in to open it early, Right? Yes, I thought it was ridiculously stupid, Like why don't we try to open a restaurant at around Christmas? Because people already have their plans, they already know where they're going, they already know you know who's going to be catering their parties. Like let's just start off fresh in the new year. But you know, Steve kind of pushed me into that and I went along.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Which I was right, because there was no. There was no. We didn't get any leverage because you're only going to be open two weeks, because you close. You know, I was going to close the week of Christmas. I wasn't even going to try to do that, so we got through the first day. It was a neat day in some ways, but it was a very hard day for me because I was nauseous and I wanted to throw up and yeah, I remember you saying that actually.
Speaker 1:I was. So I was exhausted, like in every circle of my being, my mind, my heart, my soul, my body. Everything was just depleted, and you know. But we got through it, we made it through and I knew that in order to start something, you know, you just got to, you got to do it. So we pulled the trigger, we got there, got through.
Speaker 1:The first day, fox six came out and did a new story, and that was pretty neat. I mean, I thought that was going to give me a bunch of business. You know, if you're on the, all the news broadcasts, I think they did it two days in a row, every broadcast. They did a different little thing about Kairos Cafe. But what I learned during that time was going to say and if you build it, they'll come home. Well, I built it, but they didn't come. They didn't show up and I was, you know, first couple of two or three weeks. I was fine because I was like we shouldn't be open now anyways. Right, you know when you start off at the at the new year. But then we got through December, you know, two or three weeks, and it was just. It was hard working with them, it was weird.
Speaker 2:You know why was it weird? I mean I maybe we've covered this.
Speaker 1:There was so much stress going on because Sean and I were in a relationship together.
Speaker 2:Right. So yeah, the last two episodes those were happening simultaneously, so then you just carry that forward.
Speaker 1:So but now her mom is my dining room direct running the dining room. Her brother-in-law is my catering guy, you know, and he's working with me. And then we had initially we had two other people, Wanda, who was one of Steve's church members. She was the bus person and I loved Wanda, she was all in. But then I had a server at Leonardo's named Sandy, that went to Grace and Truth a little bit. You know, she was kind of like you. She would come one Sunday and then not come for four and then come again.
Speaker 2:What are you?
Speaker 1:talking about right now. Oh wait, that's not really like you, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:That's not like me. I mean she was just like flighty. You know I loved her.
Speaker 1:But Steve wanted people to be like, committed to the grace and truth and do all the things.
Speaker 2:Well, I can understand that you want someone to be if they're coming, yeah, but you can't force that on people.
Speaker 1:I mean, that's not Jesus. God, don't force stuff on us Like why don't we feel like we need to force?
Speaker 2:it on other people.
Speaker 1:But in the beginning, when she first, when the first week or two that we were open, he called her in the office and he told her if you're going to work here, you got to come to church, can't keep missing church. And she was like what the hell are you talking about? Like she was like what is he talking about? And I was like I don't know, but I'm going to go find out. So it was like the first like weirdness that started happening. He was like demanding her if you're going to work at Kairos, you need to make sure you're coming to church. And I was like hold up that's. I think that that is even illegal. Like you can get me sued over that, you know. Like trying to mix that. Like yeah, telling somebody that their employment depends on them coming to church.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when you put it that way, it was weird.
Speaker 1:It was like another red flag. And then there was a lot of little stuff that came up during that time that just it just made me feel like I didn't know Steve. I thought I knew him, I thought I knew what he believed, I thought I knew about the church and I'd been, at that time, connected to the church for like seven years, to him for like eight or nine years, and it just started making me think, like I don't really know what I'm getting myself into, because this is weird.
Speaker 2:So hold on. I think I need to pause here because I think when you say you didn't feel like you really knew Steve because these things that were bothering you were coming up, but I think maybe a more accurate way to say that is you didn't know Steve in this particular situation and environment because he had been an unbelievable counselor and father figure.
Speaker 2:But then when you introduce this new situation of a business and there's just a lot more dynamic, so and his daughter and his daughter, your dating his daughter yeah, that was a lot of weird stuff happening with that.
Speaker 2:I just don't want it to feel like we're throwing or you're throwing him under the bus, because I know how much you love and respect him and I still love and respect him. But I think when anybody is thrown into a new situation, new dynamics, like things come out that maybe later we regret or think like maybe they didn't handle that the best way and so maybe that's what happened.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm trying to put myself back in these first six months or so, because all this was happening at one time and it was very hard for me and I just I felt like an alien, Like I've been totally taken out of my world and put into another world. And then there were so many like just things that kept happening, Like they had a lot of times they had Sunday dinner at their house and you know who had Sunday dinner Steve and Lenora. Well, Sean and I were dating by this point.
Speaker 2:Like we were. So you all are hot and heavy.
Speaker 1:You are like there was nothing else I could say, so they kind of you know they quit, they kind of quit, trying to come at us, but then at the same time they had like that disapproval you know, like that stiff upper lip kind of you know disapproving thing that was going on.
Speaker 2:I have to say you have a heightened awareness, or like disapproving looks and like vibes from people I know when it happens. It's true, you are usually right, but you definitely have a higher sensitivity.
Speaker 1:I don't like it, I don't hate it. I hate it. So there was one Sunday, right after we opened, that they were having dinner at their house. We went over after church it was me and Sean, and then Brandon was with us that day and they decided to have a ceremony after dinner.
Speaker 2:Are you calling it a ceremony or it was a ceremony? Let's define what this ceremony was.
Speaker 1:It was the most one of them. You know, I'd been in so many uncomfortable situations with them but this was very hard for me to sit through and I was so angry and so aggravated and just like, just pissed, like why are you doing this? Why are you doing this here, with me here, like why are you doing this? So the ceremony was they want to have a healing ceremony for Sean's divorce because they had been like a something with you there yes, with me sitting at the table with Brandon there.
Speaker 2:They like brought out balloons and flowers and okay, this is what I want to know, what everyone else wants to know.
Speaker 1:It was weird.
Speaker 2:What is a healing ceremony for a divorce?
Speaker 1:look like it was basically, steve was saying I just wanted to clear this fully over and full get full closure. And I was like why can't you get full closure without me being here?
Speaker 2:How long was this after the official?
Speaker 1:divorce Six months. Okay, so I don't know it was something they do, I don't. I mean, you know they come up with this like ceremony or what I mean I hate to call this. That's what I told her when we got back in the car. I was like I'm never coming over here again. I mean this is this is ridiculous. Like put me through this like ceremony.
Speaker 2:Okay, but hold on. I'm sorry to you so much about this, because this is really what you longed for, because we were together. Like we were, but the ceremony was celebrating the end to that. So what about this body?
Speaker 1:What he liked celebrating was like this like a death thing, I don't know.
Speaker 1:It was weird. And even Brandon, who was like 16 at the time, he knew it was weird. He was like looking for you now, brandon. He was looking around, he he was like well, james is going to be, james is good to her, he's going to take good care of her, and Steve like snapped at him, like we're still praying about that. So it was just, the whole thing was twisted and then, you know, you would get people come in like after we opened Cairo, steve ate lunch in there every day and how his meetings in there, and they would never refer to Shawna as my girlfriend or me as her boyfriend. They would say that the way he said it was this is Shawna's friend which was just like. It just felt like a slap and I didn't like it. I just I didn't like it. I didn't like the way it made me feel. I didn't like the way that they were coming at me and now I was in business.
Speaker 2:Okay, I know that this is a totally different like story and background, but a funny thing when you say that it reminds me of that. My, my parents would never like even if also I dated a guy in high school Geo, but they would she would never call him my boyfriend. She always called no, she, yes, my mom. She would always call him my friend. So she would introduce like this is Haley's friend Geo, and even in college she would never like, I guess, identify the guy I was dating as as a boyfriend. She would always call him my friend.
Speaker 1:Well, they wouldn't just do that. They were like overtly, like playing these like dinners, like where somebody was coming out and let me know that I wasn't supposed to come and so it was they were definitely like rejecting you on some level.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, just in front of like, when the like midnight came to town, or if somebody like if somebody, some ministry person, was eating in Cairo, it's like it was like oh, james is the owner of Cairo, blah, blah, blah, blah, all this blah, blah, blah. But then, like, let's not talk about that other.
Speaker 2:And you mean the other of you dating Sean.
Speaker 1:Me and Sean and we were dating. I mean we were, we were 100% we were all in. And if it hadn't been for me opening Cairo, we probably already would have been married, cause I would have you know I was ready.
Speaker 2:I was ready, yeah.
Speaker 1:And that whole thing was weird. And then she had this weird thing about my house. She wanted me to sell my house and us by another house and I was like there's no, this is a perfectly great I mean, god has blessed me with this house, so it was and, just to be clear, this is the first house you bought ever since you've been married.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, and so I even said, and she was like, but you've already hung pictures on the wall. I said we can take all the pictures down. You start over Like I'm not selling my house, I'm not doing all that. It's ridiculous. I mean it was stupid. Like why don't you do that? Like it's not, like you're renting another apartment, like selling the house. I mean that's just a big deal. But anyways, we got, I said in the last episode I took out like a I was like $38,000 equity line on the on my house, and then I had maxed out all my credit cards and turned them into cash to finish opening up Cairo's.
Speaker 1:So I was under a mountain of debt that I couldn't. I just couldn't keep up Like I couldn't come out of it. So I ended up caving in and deciding that I'd need to sell my house, like I need to do something different. So, and that made her happy and but it didn't make me happy and it was just like I don't know. I just felt like now I'm giving up my home, I've given up everything for this girl.
Speaker 2:It's almost like you had given up your stability in general that you had fought for since getting out of prison.
Speaker 1:It was, it was, it was a weird, it was a weird time. So the week off that we took before we came back in January I decided to go ahead and move so I could. You know, I had in my mind and be easier to sell house feels empty but said townhouse like that Cause I had all my stuff in there. So she had run a department South side, like two blocks from Cairo's. It was like in the like where the UAB kids lived and it was a little one bedroom and so I thought, well, I just need to, I'll get close to her. So I actually let her go pick me out an apartment, which was a bad idea, because she picked out like it was one of those old like. It was like two stories and there was like two apartments up top, two down bottom. But it was like built in, like you know, when George Washington was president.
Speaker 2:Minor exaggeration but that's okay.
Speaker 1:But it was. It was right in the heart of of of UAB and South side, and I could have walked to work if I wanted to, so and it was one not even a block from her because she was in an apartment, so it was like half a block from her. And so I called and did a lease on that and I don't know, it's just so much going on and just my identity started getting. I felt like my identity was being attacked. Let me back up. The reason why I let her pick out my apartment was I found an apartment like on Lakeshore, like halfway between where I lived and where Kairos was, and I went in to try to sign a lease and all stuff and they asked me. They told me they had to run my license to make sure I'd never been convicted of a felony and I was like but I have been convicted and she was like no need to do that?
Speaker 1:No, but the girl's like this young girl's office girl. She's like, oh, it's okay, it's the only if it's male, it almost is like something serious, like robbery or attempted murders. So I was like, yeah, I'll check all those boxes.
Speaker 1:So, but I didn't know that was a thing, because my first apartment that I rented was from, like, a local. Like I didn't know, I didn't know they could like not rent unit, not rent your apartment. So I went through an identity crisis with that, like I'm not hell, no, I'm not selling my house to go try to rent something somewhere. And then you know. But the bills were piling up and I was. I needed to move on like I need to do something different.
Speaker 1:So I ended up, you know, put my house on the market. I moved in this apartment on Southside and the first night that I was there I couldn't stop crying. Like I just couldn't. Like this is not my home, like what am I doing here? This is weird in the like the plumbing didn't work, the air didn't it's just like everything was being stripped from you Kind of.
Speaker 2:Are you? I mean, you were allowing it. Like I said, I made the choices, yeah.
Speaker 1:I did, but it was. It was a hard, hard time.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And you know, we came back, we opened up my house, didn't sell right away like I thought it would cause those houses, those townhouses where I live, they usually sold in a week, but it didn't. It didn't sell that fast. And then, well, I was trying to do for sale by owner too, which was, you know, ended up that ended up being a bad idea. I let one of my neighbors was a realtor, was like I can sell this for you in a week if you'll let me. And I was like, look, this is what I got to have and do whatever you want to just help me. And you know, eventually she did.
Speaker 1:But it was just a weird, weird time. And then, like waking up in the morning, getting dressed, going to work and prepping all that food for somebody that wasn't coming, was it was just like hopeless. And then, you know, I had like Sandy and Lenora and Wanda and Jail. They would go out and hand out flyers and put on people's cars and you know it was just. I was just like I just don't. I've never been in a business like this.
Speaker 2:Well, you were coming off the cusp of Leonardo's where it just flooded in, basically right. I mean, there was so much traffic, so many people coming in my whole history though, was that I'd never worked in a restaurant that had to advertise.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like when I was in high school I worked for Ryan Steakhouse.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Zero dollars, smell advertising Like they wanted to word of mouth. When I went to work for Mr Filetta, you know, mr Bruno had this thing like we don't want to spend our money on advertising because if we're doing all that it's not even going. You know, it doesn't matter. So here I am, I built it. They didn't come. Now I'm stuck and now just got to figure it out.
Speaker 1:At the same time, you know, I needed an income because I had all these bills and all this stuff going on. So I worked at Cairo's in the morning, in the AM I worked at Cairo's and in the PM I worked at Leonardo's. So I'd given up like the management part of it, but I was still like like my mom had taken that over and I was training her and all that stuff. That was what Tony wanted. But I was still like on the schedule. I still worked like five or six nights a week, wow, just to have an income. Like I didn't. I couldn't get an income from Cairo's. But the the weird thing about Cairo's the first three or four months that I was open I made more than tips and one shift at Leonardo's than we made in one day at Cairo's Wow, but I had six people that had to pay. So I was just like trying to figure all this stuff out and it was just it was a heavy weight and it was weird and I was completely and utterly just.
Speaker 1:You know, I was exhausted, yeah, and it was always something going on. It was always some kind of drama, something happening Like uh, lenora would get aggravated with me about something that she felt like I should be doing, that I said I wasn't going to do and instead of like coming and talking to me about it and that's us figured out she would call Shauna and try to get Shauna to talk to me about it, and then that caused conflict between me and her and really that was one of the worst fights we ever had. It was her mom, like, and I could hear her on the phone with her mom, her mom telling her well, I think we should do all this, and then just being like no, I mean, this is, this is just, this is twisted. You know what I'm saying? It was just bad.
Speaker 2:So I mean, you know, like I am very empathetic yeah, we just had this conversation the other day like not to not to do with this at all, but like and I can see how that could happen so easily but like in your situation, that was wearing me out well in your situation that I wasn't there and it's like zoom, I didn't even know you then.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then when I was zooming out, I can see that it was just like very dysfunctional. Yeah, it was. It was twisted on many levels, yeah, and to no one's final thing. Anybody wanted it to be that way. No, it was, we made decisions, it was just creating a not good, healthy, like productive environment.
Speaker 1:It seems like, yeah, it was not it was, it was for me, it was misery. Yeah, it was, it was misery. And then trying to figure out how to get people to come there. So I got to a point where I figured out I'm here, I just got to figure it out, so that's what I'm going to do. So you know me. Once I'm all in, I'm going to figure out a way and I'm going to push through.
Speaker 2:And I love that about you. That's the strength.
Speaker 1:It is a strength, but it can also like keep you stuck somewhere.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:I'm going to do this over again. I would just quit, be like no, I'm not doing it, the same working out, this obvious that I ain't working out, and let's go do something else. Yeah, but at the same I say that now, but at the same time I knew I had to keep going because I didn't something about the way I'm wired. I don't want to go backwards, like I can't go back to Leonardo's with my tail tucked in between my legs, even though Tony would have welcomed me with open arms.
Speaker 1:Well, actually, at this time I hadn't even ever really left, like right, yeah, you're still there at night, like I didn't have the title of running the Restaurant part, but I was still running it right pretty much. I mean, my mom was doing she was doing a great job. She was doing stuff the way I trained her, but she was not me right.
Speaker 2:It was time to figure it out, okay, so what's? What did you need to figure it out?
Speaker 1:Well, I start off with that. You know, see, was like let's do flyers and stand out flyers, and I was like, okay, we can try that, but it wasn't produced. I mean, I think we got one person that came in that said they got a flyer. It's like I've already spent $50 on flyers and nobody's coming in.
Speaker 2:So we're gonna do something else.
Speaker 1:So I think it was Shauna that gave me. She heard somebody speaking at a business thing that she was that they talked about a book called guerrilla marketing and she went and bought me a copy of the book. I mean she was very supportive of me during this time because this was a hard time, yeah, emotionally and all every it was just yeah, and it was even probably even you know, ramped up way harder for her because you know her family was all right right so she, she bought me this book called guerrilla marketing and I didn't.
Speaker 1:I didn't read it at first, I just threw it on my desk like I ain't got time for all this. You know hocus pocus, nonsense. But I Was desperate so I had to figure it out. So I Was waking up, I would go home after Leonardo's sleep for like three hours, set an alarm and I would go out and go downtown around all the hospitals and I started like posting Flyers on the telephone pulse. I got I'm this sounds crazy, but I was desperate.
Speaker 1:I was willing to do whatever I needed to do right but I went to like this was when kinkos was still a thing. Like I'll go to kinkos and I'll get the the biggest ones you could get. And you know, tell them about kairos. You know we got lunch, come, eat all the things and I would go around With a staple gun and stay, because they'll pull them down like stuff like that, because it's illegal to do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, or.
Speaker 1:No, it's illegal. You're just not supposed to do that.
Speaker 2:Oh, the irony.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I was just like I gotta find a way to get the word I'm in, the food's good, so everything, everything. It's like if people could just know that we're here, mm-hmm. But all the research that I done on always did not apply in 2006 because always have been shut down since like 1990, right, so it was just a. It was rough, but she got me the grill, a marketing book, and I finally got to a place where I thought, well, I don't know what, I don't know, so maybe I should give this a shot. So I read the book. I mean I think I sat down and read the book cover to cover, just trying to like I was desperate, like I gotta, I gotta do something, I gotta figure this out. And then all my advice that I was getting from you know what in good advice like that, I shouldn't say it wasn't good advice. There wasn't from who, advice from who wasn't good. Well, I mean I had my core group, like I had Steven and orange Jeremy.
Speaker 2:They were like the team had they ever started a business. They have been an experience there no no, and yet they were your core team.
Speaker 1:Well, it was what I was in, and then, because we were corporation, we had to have a board. So we set up a board. Steve named himself president of the board, of course, and then, but we would have these board meetings when it'd be like it would be the four of us and it'd be like this Okay, I caused meeting to order and I was like it's just us, like we don't, do we have to do? I mean, we have to do all that. I make a motion to move to do this and that I'm like it's just us, like do we have? I mean?
Speaker 2:I mean, but part of me I can understand, like following protocol and doing things like the right way.
Speaker 1:I get that, but there was, he was getting something out of this. This was feeding something to him, but it was at my expense. Yeah, that makes sense Absolutely.
Speaker 2:So I'm the one on the line, I mean you're the one that sold your house and has the bills Piling up and it's not going to jump. Yeah, that can just. Yeah, it was awful.
Speaker 1:But, like from his perspective, he got to be president of the board and play chairman, like Donald Trump and apprentice, and then James. This is how it felt, I'm not saying this is how it was, even know this. I think this is how it was. It was like feeding something. That was weird and I didn't like it.
Speaker 2:Use another word besides weird to help me understand.
Speaker 1:It was odd, I just felt like this was all coming at my expense. This was all coming at.
Speaker 2:This was all on my back Would. It was just unsettling, it didn't feel right. No, yeah.
Speaker 1:And there's so many things that didn't feel right.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:And then, like the stuff was like a sandy quit after that, like I'm out, like I can't do all this, like I know church people Gonna be telling me what to do, like on my job. I tell me how to come to church.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna risk losing my job. So she moved on you know all that stuff and then during that time they they Steve appointed Jeremy as the facilities coordinator, director of the building, and it just meant that he was in charge of the property and all the things. And it felt like a slap in the face to me because I was like so y'all gonna give him an extra salary and give him a title in the church, but he's gonna be trying to do all that while he's working for me, while I'm paying him money that I can't afford to pay him. It didn't just all this stuff, it just it was a I would never do this again. Like I Learned through this process, like if something is not right, you need to call it out and you need to deal with it and you don't need to just go along. But I didn't know and I had, I still had such a respect for him and you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, of course it wasn't good. Okay, so how did you move forward? Let's like get there, okay so we did the.
Speaker 1:I was going around doing all the posters. Yeah then I wasn't sleeping so I was dizzy. You know, it was because I was working full-time at Cairo's, a full-time job, five days a week, and then I was working five nights a week at Leonardo's full-time job. So I was, I Was exhausted, burning it both ends, yeah, but I couldn't not work because I had to pay my bills.
Speaker 2:And you know, and also like this wasn't. I know we're kind of like beating this, like beating this out, but like it wasn't a job, like you work and then you leave at work because there were so many things Intertwined and it was, it was bad, it was twisted.
Speaker 1:I didn't quit saying it was bad, yeah, but it was, this was not, but it was, this was not a good time for me. And then, in the middle of all this, my mom would come and be like like, beg me to quit. Like you can quit, you don't have to do this. Quick, high-risk human, yeah, you can just give this up, you can, you don't have to do this, just come, don't. Say please, don't, say your house, please don't, please don't do this, please don't. And you know I didn't want her to be right, so that was part of my digging my heels in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but a lot of stuff, she was discerning things and in a lot of ways she was right. But I mean, I couldn't admit that then. I can admit it now. But I was, you know, I was determined to figure it out.
Speaker 1:But in the middle of all this, it was February of 2007, hard time for me. We had shut down for lunch at 2 30 and Everybody was on my nerves. Jeremy was on my nerves, he's on my nerves, lord Norris on my nerves, and it was just a. It was one of those days where everything was bothering me and I was just trying I got to get out of here. I got to get out of here, get out of this. I can't do this.
Speaker 1:And there was a car outside that kept circling the building and Jeremy, he was one. He's kind of like Roy, he's very my son. Well, he's very aware, he pays attention everything and he would call attention everything. He was like why does this car keep circling? And I said it don't matter, we're closed, so who cares? Like why do you even care? And a car pulled up to the front. It was just a regular car and these two guys jumped out and they came to the front door and they said we need to see James kick Keith Jones and I said that's me, what's up? And they were like, can you, can you step outside? And I said Sure.
Speaker 1:I mean I thought it was like a customer or something. So I step outside and he said I'm so-and-so with the US Marshals, I have a warrant for your arrest, and I thought it was a joke. I mean I thought I thought it was a joke. He said I have a warrant for your arrest and I said, okay, haha, because I had a friend, paul Wendorf, who's actually elder at Grayson truth. He was a Hoover police officer. Like he's an FBI. Now he's moved up. You know he's awesome open out.
Speaker 1:But he would play jokes on people with his police car like Maybe I shouldn't be telling that, but he was like cool people over, like just has a funny. Yeah, yeah, friends, like people, we can't play with that like so I thought it was Paul Wendorf playing a joke on me.
Speaker 2:I really did and I was like a terrible joke, I was like okay, huh.
Speaker 1:But they turned me around and put handcuffs Handcuff me behind my back and then reached down and put handcuffs on my feet and I was like, oh shit, like what's happening here?
Speaker 2:And this is a real arrest.
Speaker 1:They arrested me and I didn't know what funny understand what's happened. I was like I know I ain't no crime, you know what's happening. And then I look back and there was the Nora and Jeremy and Wanda and they were looking at me like I did something wrong. I was like I don't know, I don't know what this is.
Speaker 2:You know that is insane.
Speaker 1:So you're standing outside your restaurant and all this and they are putting you under arrest they handcuffed your hands and feet and threw me in the back Of the car and sped away what it was, I don't know it was. It was very traumatic they. What were you thinking? I didn't know. I was like this. Is it like a night? Like I'm still, I'm asleep somewhere. It's the night where I'm having a bad dream, like I'd sing some like USA movies where people got wrongfully convicted or arrested of things and I was like is this, like Am I sleeping? I'm dreaming this because I watched this USA movie about this guy getting wrongfully convicted but they spend me oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:So here I am. I'm in this hardest part of my life.
Speaker 2:This is hard what I'm doing and you've been through prison, so that says something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but the feeling of handcuffs on you. You don't know what that feels like.
Speaker 2:No, I don't and I'm like well, I don't.
Speaker 1:Well, by this time I've been free for eight years. So this was I thought I was dreaming. So they get me to the Jefferson County jail in downtown Birmingham, they go to book me and they fingerprint me, all the things, and I still don't really understand what's happening. It was one of the robberies that happened in 1993 that I went to prison for in Dale County, which was Dothan. It would have been a second or third one that we did in Alabama, yeah, that they'd never processed. So when they told me that I was just like I'm, I'm screwed, like I don't know, yeah, wow.
Speaker 1:So they have this thing where they In Jefferson County. It's like striped uniforms they put on. You have stripes on them and If you have a black and white stripe, you're like four, one, three, 15, but if you have red stripes showing the top floor, which means you're a violent criminal, like a murderer, but you know arm robbery, you know stuff like that. So they put a red jumpsuit on me and threw me in a holding cell. Oh, my god. And you know, all the other people know who you got on the red stripe, what you did, and I was like I ain't did nothing, I don't know. They're like, yeah, everybody say that, but I didn't know what to do and I was okay.
Speaker 2:So, just to be clear, this was from the original crime spree 1993 1993 actually the crime was in 92. How does that happen, that they, when you say, they didn't process it or what it?
Speaker 1:would they never? They'd never Like follow through with it.
Speaker 2:And so why all the sudden did it just pop up?
Speaker 1:No, it's what it's. As long as you have an active one against you, it can go like dormant.
Speaker 2:But if you get somebody in a do they have a quota they need to meet or something? I'm just curious.
Speaker 1:No, I found out later. They were trying to clean out their files and my file came up like well, we've never dealt with this, so they were gonna deal with it now. Wow, so, but I mean, this is robbery one. This is arm robbery. This is a, you know, average is 20 years sentence.
Speaker 2:Did they see that you had already served time and all that, or you know?
Speaker 1:they didn't ask those questions. Wow, they just so I didn't know what to do, but I was exhausted. I was so tired, like.
Speaker 2:I was just exhausted, so I went to sleep.
Speaker 1:I Lay down on the little little thing there. I went to sleep and I slept for two or three hours and I didn't know what was going on. They let me have one phone call and I thought I need to call my mom. But it'd be better for me to call Steve because he can help me.
Speaker 1:So, they gave me my one phone call and he was like balling his eyes out, like just crying, and like how are you feeling? Like, and Steve loved me. Like I'm being negative about some of the things that we're going through with this, but he was a father figure to me and he loved me and he cared for me and he was Like less concerned about all the things. But like how are you feeling about all this? And I was like I don't know, I'm confused.
Speaker 2:I don't know, I don't know what's happening, I'm just confused and also, I have to say, because you're such a slow processor, I mean, you know, I can say that we talked about that like 24 hours. So like something this, this dramatic and traumatic and intense it's happening so quickly. I can see how you're just can't even process everything that's happening.
Speaker 1:Well, they I didn't know this then, but I heard it later like Leonardo's world went crazy because Tony was like, because he was a, he was a defense attorney in Birmingham and he was like working his, his angles and, you know, trying to, and he told my mom They've got a hold on him in another county. There's nothing that can be done for him. You know, he might be in there for months before they even move him, and so and they had called in some lawyers.
Speaker 2:You would have been out for eight years. Yeah, this is an spotless record.
Speaker 1:I mean doing everything they told me to do, wow. And then it was funny, sean, and say they put cuz you can pull out. You can go on a website and pull up when somebody gets arrested. And Well, where, they took my picture when I got arrested and and Shawna and Steve and all their family was looking at the picture and they were like what do you think James is thinking there? And she was like he's thinking what the hell is going on here because I was smirking or whatever. But uh, they weren't telling me anything. I didn't know anything. I talked to Steve, I went back, I went to sleep and I might have said, I think I said for like six hours and they were sending me up to the violent floor.
Speaker 1:They were sending me up, you know, and I was stuck. And here's something Just the fact that maybe you don't know, if you get arrested for a crime Like if I come in the crime in Jefferson County, I got arrested, you could come by me out, but if I get arrested in Jefferson County with the hold from another county, then I can't get bonded out until I go to another county and they hold me until that county comes and picks me up, which could be whenever they decided come get me, because then you know that's four hours away, yeah. So I fall asleep, I, I'm there for like six hours and holding cell and they come and wake me up and the lady tells me to put on my clothes. And so I was like I still I still understand what's happening here. So I put my clothes on and I walk out and there's a sheriff from Dale County, which is Dothan, you know, four hours away.
Speaker 1:He was like man, you're a lucky, you're lucky. And I said why? And he said I was en route to pick up somebody that had that was being held in the Hoover County, in the Hoover jail, that I was taking back to Dale County. And that was my only order was to go pick them up and take them back to Dale County. And as I was passing Birmingham, I just happened to see that you got arrested and I swung in here and picked you up. If I hadn't come here and picked you up now, it might have been three weeks before I would have got back. So you're very lucky. So I was thinking, ok, I'm lucky, or either Jesus is, you know, jesus got me.
Speaker 1:So they get me down, they take me to Dale County. They go to process me and it was different there. They weren't like it wasn't quite it. The Jefferson County is a violent jail. This is a big area in Jefferson County. So this is Dale County is a little like Redneck Town.
Speaker 1:You know, the lady was sweet to me and she was like well, baby, will somebody bond you out? And I said yes, ma'am. She said, well, there's no reason for us to process you in or dress you out, so you just go in there and you just sleep and do whatever you need to do till the morning comes and you call your people to come bond you out. Can they do that? And I said, yes, ma'am, you know somebody's going to come by me out. And she said, ok, well, that's this, this is what we're going to do. So I went in there, I went back to sleep and I got like the best sleep because I hadn't had sleep, I was exhausted. So six o'clock they called me and they put me on the phone. They said your mom's on the phone and mama was screaming and crying. You know, she's my mom, that's what she does.
Speaker 2:So she said that she wanted to come and get me.
Speaker 1:But Steve had called and asked her if he could do it with Mike Farrell, who's a friend of ours, who went to our church and he'd been in prison, like so he understood like everything. So they were coming to get me and that they had just, they had just left and she let them borrow her car and gave them the money and all the things. So that's four hours, so six o'clock, so six, seven, eight, nine, ten. I knew I had at least until 10 until they got there to get me. So I went back in there, I went back to sleep.
Speaker 1:I slept for like 20 minutes. They woke me up again and they said come out. And they said go in this little thing where you talk through the glass, and there was a man sitting there that I didn't know. I never seen him and he said I need you to sign these papers. I need you to not say a word. I need you to sign these papers. I need you to sign these papers and then they're going to release you. You're going to walk out into the bay, You're going to take a right, You're going to walk straight out and you're going to see a red Bronco. I need you to get in the red Bronco.
Speaker 2:This is like a freaking movie. Why aren't we doing this episode by itself? This should be an episode by itself. It was crazy.
Speaker 1:So I was like but I was still half asleep. I was like OK, my name, Walk out, I get in the car with him.
Speaker 2:Who does that?
Speaker 1:I get in the car, no, look, he looks over at me and he said I don't know you, I don't know why the hell I'm doing this. And I said can we pause? What are we doing?
Speaker 2:What's happening, who are you and what the hell are you actually?
Speaker 1:doing. He said I'm a bell bondsman and I've never done this before and I honestly don't know why I'm doing this, but I've got to go to Troy and so I thought it would be nice. Your friends are coming to pick you up.
Speaker 2:Well, ok, ok stop.
Speaker 1:I'm going to Troy. I'm just going to take you to Troy. We'll meet him there.
Speaker 2:How did this guy even know about you in the jail?
Speaker 1:Because they called him bonding OK, so I think it was Mike Farrell.
Speaker 2:Like he had been in prison, he had you know he had a record they had called this connection.
Speaker 1:No, just a bondsman. So, for some reason, this guy felt compelled to do all this weird stuff for me. He didn't know what he was doing, but then he looked at me and was like if you try anything stupid and I was like what I'm not whatever, you know, whatever.
Speaker 2:So we drive to Troy, Wait hold on, let's Hold on, I feel like this is crazy. I mean, I'm a very fast processor and I feel like I need to hear this again. So he said you needed to that right then. And there he was bonding you out.
Speaker 1:I was already out. I'm sitting in his car.
Speaker 2:No, we were driving away. I was not in jail anymore. I'm talking about when you went to the glass.
Speaker 1:I didn't know what he was doing.
Speaker 2:OK, so he looked at me.
Speaker 1:He said I'm going to pass this to you. You need to sign this paper and I need you to not speak a word about anything. I just need you to walk. I didn't know what to do. I was scared but I was like what is happening? Like it didn't, and it was early in the morning and I knew it didn't make any sense Like four hours to get from Birmingham to.
Speaker 2:So you signed the papers, I signed the papers, and then you immediately walked out. They set me free, they'd let me out, and then you followed his instructions to the right Right.
Speaker 1:I walked out there as a red Bronco, I jumped in the red Bronco and we're on the highway.
Speaker 2:I feel like this is like an OJ scene.
Speaker 1:It was weird. It was weird. So then we're headed to Troy. No, I guess worse it gets weird. So we get to Troy. You're headed to Troy and it's around like eight, this too early in the morning.
Speaker 2:Like for all people listening.
Speaker 1:I have never heard this story, Just say now it was early in the morning Like nothing was happening. It was early. He pulls into a Kentucky fried chicken. That was closed, so we're the only people in the parking lot and I'm looking around Like and he starts to feel like I'm finna die, start smoking a cigarette and I was like, can I have a cigarette?
Speaker 1:I need to do some. So we're sitting there Maybe 10, 15, 20 minutes. He's not talking to me. He's like. He's like weirded out, like what am I doing? Like I think he's nervous because you know he can trouble for that.
Speaker 2:All right For what I don't understand If he's a bondsman and he bonded you out. What can he get in trouble for?
Speaker 1:He's supposed to bond me out. When they paid, they hadn't even paid the bond.
Speaker 2:They hadn't paid the bond.
Speaker 1:I mean that was not, I mean it was just weird, but and he kept saying I don't know why I'm doing this and I was like I don't know why he keeps saying that to me.
Speaker 2:I don't know what to tell you.
Speaker 1:I don't even know what you're doing, so he, steve and Mike Farrell, pull up in the Kentucky Fried Chicken Park lot, and so there's two cars there, the Red Bronco, and they're driving Early in the morning it's like eight o'clock they get out and they count out cash Thousand dollars them, because I had a ten thousand dollar bond.
Speaker 1:I'm just counting out hundred dollar bills to him that my mom had gave him the money. But they're counting the money out to him and to me it looked like a drift deal, like I was like if I was watching this, like if I was like standing on the side of the road watching this happening. I would think they're getting crack or heroin or something. Something's happening. But who was I to say anything? I was helpless, I didn't know. I didn't know what to do. So they counted the money out, gave him the money, I jumped in the back of my mom's car and they spent me off to Birmingham.
Speaker 2:OK, so here's what I'm thinking Like. So he told the people the powers that be at the jail or whatever that he had the money and that he right.
Speaker 1:Bondsman sign a bond.
Speaker 2:OK, oh, so he did it. So, basically, if, if Stephen or whoever hadn't given him the money, he'd be on the hook for it. Yeah, ok, it was weird.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was weird, but here's the here's the deal. If I ever didn't think that Jesus was for me and that had his hand on me and was protecting me and running my life, I knew it. Now, like I knew it now because they drove me back to Birmingham Straight, to Cairo's cafe, because we're over here. Well, pause for just a second.
Speaker 2:OK, so real quick. So pause the timeline here. So how long? From the time that he put you in handcuffs, hands and feet to right now they're driving you back to Birmingham.
Speaker 1:So it was like three o'clock the day before. This was like eight o'clock in the morning. We're headed back to.
Speaker 2:Birmingham the next morning.
Speaker 1:Wow. Ok, but pause. Here's a fun fact for Cairo's cafe at this time in 2007. I'm the only one who knows how to cook. Nobody else knows how to cook. And another fun fact.
Speaker 2:Minor snag. The only cook slash owner gets arrested.
Speaker 1:But another snag this was our first party that we had been looking forward to, so I had 25 people coming in for a party at 10 30 this morning. And I'm the only one knows how to cook. So this was weird. This is neat. This is neat. So they speed me back towards Birmingham. Steve and Mike Farrell, I mean, I think we stopped one time and got gas and I got some snacks.
Speaker 2:I mean I want to hear this, but like did you unpack with Stephen Mike? Like, ok, what the heck is?
Speaker 1:going on. I was in shock by the time I was. I didn't want to talk about it.
Speaker 2:That doesn't surprise me. For you, yeah, shock.
Speaker 1:So we pull in to the parking lot of Cairo's cafe. It's like 11 o'clock when we get there I walk through the back door with Nora is physically walking into the kitchen with 25 tickets to hand to Jeremy, who doesn't know how to cook. Like tickets, like orders the party that was out there, so we're trying to build this business and desperate and it's a mess, and it is.
Speaker 1:there is no way that you can say that Providence, like got me back where I needed to be because it just this is. You can't make this stuff up, so I walk in. You know they're all trying to holler at me and you know also I put out the 25 orders that is insane. And it was our first party, it was our very first part.
Speaker 2:So from three o'clock pm the day before and the afternoon is when they cuffed your hands and feet, put you in the cop car took me to Jefferson County. Jefferson County and then you went to that other city.
Speaker 1:Dale County.
Speaker 2:Dale County and then we're was actually. That is insane.
Speaker 1:It is crazy, but I put the food out.
Speaker 2:I was good, of course you did. I feel like that's such a James K Jones story.
Speaker 1:James K Jones story.
Speaker 2:Yeah, jesus, like got you there, but as far as like, once you walked in the door like let's not celebrate, but I just got to get to work.
Speaker 1:Like I did. I had to put the food out. They didn't know how to do anything.
Speaker 2:Bless your heart.
Speaker 1:So that's what I got that done, we got cleaned up. I ran home, got dressed for my night shift at Leonardo's. I wasn't even really thought I was just like I got to do anything to do, like do the next thing, put on my clothes, get to get to Leonardo's and when I walked in the front the lobby of Leonardo's Tony was there and he had a bunch of his lawyer friends that they were trying to figure out how to get me, you know how to bust me out, do whatever, but it was impossible. It was an impossible situation. They broke out into applause and cheers and Tony was crying, boo was crying.
Speaker 2:So they didn't know you were out.
Speaker 1:Mama told him that they were coming to buy me out and Tony told Boo, I think Norma is just stressed out and she don't know what she's saying and she's delusional. No, he was a lawyer, he understood the law. He was like there's no way, it can't happen. But I'm like well, I'm here, I'm ready to work my shift. That makes me feel like it was crazy.
Speaker 2:I mean just that. I mean, that is a beautiful story and a Jesus story and like, but it was very traumatic. But, it's also the fact that, like you really didn't like get the time to like, just like, ok, process that for a minute, I mean that to me makes me a little bit. No, that was probably better for me I didn't need to think about it.
Speaker 1:I didn't need to think because this this weighed on me heavily for the next six months, like it was a. This was a trauma. Like I was afraid to drive my car.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:I was like I thought I was free, I thought I had paid my debt to society and that I was free. But if they could come and just lock me up like that and all this could happen. But at this time Steve was working for Yabbi Task part time, so he had a lot of connections. So he went into you know like prison diversion zone kind of thing, and you have to understand this too. I was broke like I don't have any money. I was. I was in a desperate situation and I knew that I couldn't get it. I couldn't have a public defender Like I did. I'd have got 20 years out of that.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Holly. So the next Sunday there was a guy at our church His name was Gary Bonham and he had the gift of prophecy, which you know. A lot of people that say they have that gift don't. But he wasn't. Somebody said that. But he called me up and said he wanted to pray for me and he said this is not a disaster, this is. This is God clearing things out so that you can be successful? And he said one day you're going to be a very rich man and you're going to be very influential and you're going to help millions of people.
Speaker 2:And I was like is that that the you? Yeah, I was like breaking on baby.
Speaker 1:No, but I. But this is where I was in. I was like, ok, I mean right now I'm just trying to hire a lawyer. So they did a special offering at church that Sunday. It was like for outreach or something, and I had a fifty dollar bill in my wallet and I felt like Jesus said, put that fifty dollars in. I was like I need this fifty dollars and he was like, just trust me, put it in. So I put it in and the special offering that they did that day this was a congregation of like a hundred people.
Speaker 1:They, the offering was like thirty five thousand dollars, which was like a record, like I don't even know what thirty five thousand dollars, five thousand because this guy, gary Barnum, was saying like we need to do a special offering, we need to outreach to the community, we need to do all the same kind of legacy what Pastor Chris does at our church now.
Speaker 1:So through this offering, I put my fifty dollars in Steve. I let Steve take over my legal stuff. He found a lawyer in Dale County that used to be a judge, so he knew what was going on, but he wanted a five thousand dollar. He said it'll be five thousand dollars. I can, this is a constitutional case. They can't do this. It'll be five thousand dollars but that'll be all you have to pay. So out of that offering they gave, they paid the five thousand dollars to hire my lawyer. Oh my God, but it will be on them. It was like Jesus told me to put my fifty dollars in that bucket and I didn't want to do it. But I did it by faith. And it was like there's a scripture where it says if you give it, it'll be multiplied ten, twenty hundred fold.
Speaker 2:It's like.
Speaker 1:Thank you for the hundred fold.
Speaker 1:But anyway, they paid my they paid that and the lawyer's name was Michael Kresby. He was a. He was fantastic. I never saw him, never met in face to face, just talked to him on the phone but he was like they can't, they can't do this, like they can't do this to you, but just the outpouring of people. After that, like we didn't make it public, but Just like my parole, linda O'Brien, she wrote a letter for me in that season. Steve was like collecting letters, which was your parole officer, just to remind her on.
Speaker 1:She was my first parole, sir, but the lawyer was saying we don't need the letters, we don't need to do all that. They can't do that. It's constitutional. You have a constitutional right to a fast and speedy trial. They violated that. It's been. By that time it had been 15 years 15? I thought you said it had been eight. I'd been out eight.
Speaker 2:It had been like eight plus the seven that I'd been in, so it happened 92.
Speaker 1:So, anyways, he settled it, they dropped it and I was, you know, I never had to go to court, I never had to do anything. But it was very traumatic but at the same time it made my faith. It increased my faith, like I understood, like God is for me If he can let them come and arrest me and take me four hours away and get me back in time to cook lunch the next day.
Speaker 2:And you probably got more sleep than you would have ever gotten. I did.
Speaker 1:Well, Wanda was the best one during that time. She was my best person.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:She was like we're wringing our hands, stressed out, going crazy, and you're over there sleeping. I don't know what I'm saying. Oh, that's great, it was neat. So after that it was neat. No, I mean it wasn't neat what happened, but it was neat the way that God's hand was on that. There was no way that could have. And then you know, that night when I went in at Leonardo's and all those lawyers were there and talking, they were like what the hell, disbelief, and I was just like I don't know what to tell you.
Speaker 2:I'm here.
Speaker 1:You know I need to make.
Speaker 2:No, I know what you wanted to say. I need to shift. This is what you need to say. He's an on time God. Yes, he is, and in that case, he really was.
Speaker 1:He was an on time God, yeah so. But right after this I felt like this is where I'm supposed to be, this is what I'm supposed to be doing. This is hard, I just need to push through and figured out. So I came to my house, wouldn't sell, so I had rent payment, I had a mortgage, I had all. I mean, it was just so many bills were just piling up on me. But I felt like I had learned like years before, like if you're going to be totally committed to the future, you have to let go of the past. And so I told Tony it's time for me to go. I got to go.
Speaker 1:I got to be on the percent with Kyra.
Speaker 2:So, in other words, to quit Leonardo's yeah.
Speaker 1:And it was hard and you know it ended up. You know I ended up having to follow up with my mom over that. She didn't want me to do all that and it was scary, but I stepped out in faith and do what I needed to do and kept moving forward. And after that I read that gorilla marketing book.
Speaker 2:Oh, I thought you'd already read it. Cover to cover.
Speaker 1:I did, it was in this time.
Speaker 2:It was all kind of blended yeah.
Speaker 1:So I had an idea. The premise of the book was like, don't try to do like traditional stuff, find something you can do that you want to spend money at. And I came up with an idea to do an email newsletter to where I would share, like this is the news will happen in. It'll be a weekly newsletter. I would share some news, share some food, you know special stuff like that. Put a coupon in there. You know if you come in you get a free drink or dessert. You know it's different coupon every week and then, but also put like a devotional in there, like this is what I'm learning through this process.
Speaker 2:And that ended up actually building my business One person at a time, and because that now this I know a little bit about, but because that newsletter ended up how many like at the end.
Speaker 1:I was five 6,000 people.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Read my newsletter, which is all organic really.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, in the beginning I didn't know what I was doing, yeah, so I was just like hijacking people's email addresses, and but we put out like a newsletter sign up. You can get a free dessert if you sign up for the newsletter.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay.
Speaker 1:But ended up. It ended up like gaining traction and I had several people reach out to me and tell me no, I use this as my devotional on Monday because I would send it out. It'll be there on Monday and it would just have, like the specials. This is what we're doing. Here's a coupon. You're not trying to add value to people and I would but I would put a little of the votes. This is what I'm learning. I'm struggling.
Speaker 2:This is hard, but this is how it is so, yeah, it was what you were learning personally, yeah.
Speaker 1:And it was very like. I was kind of like the podcast. I was being very vulnerable with people, intimate and it started growing my business that's awesome.
Speaker 1:I went from there. But then there was like a game changer was right after that I had a guy from the Birmingham news that called. His name was Roy Williams. He was a writer for the Birmingham news and he said I've got your story came across. You know that you're in prison and the restaurant and being connected to the church and all stuff. Can I come and do a story? And I said yeah, so he came into the story but he got so excited when he was interviewing me. But he was, he was a Jesus follower, so he kind of knew some of the stuff that I was talking about. But he his brother was in the military and was in the Pentagon when it got hit by the plane on 911 and he died in it and so something about him trying to make sense of all because this was like five years, six years later.
Speaker 1:He was still he was suffering through that Like and something about my story helped him, and I can't remember exactly how it connected, but he was like, just poured his heart out to me about because this was painful, you know the stuff that he'd been through.
Speaker 1:But he ended up writing the story. He said it'll probably be a little story somewhere in there, but they ended up putting it on the front page of the. It was I think it was the religion section, but when the story came out I was the full front page cover color picture and the headline said God gets the glory at Chorus Cafe.
Speaker 2:We should put that on our Patreon.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but that, that with the email, and then that happened, and then that put me up for some reason. Everybody came after that and then I guess we'll end with the one of my the stories that just warms my heart more than anything was Brandon was working with me.
Speaker 2:Oh, this is my favorite.
Speaker 1:He didn't work with me all the time. It was like I would let him pick up shifts when he cook, as he was in school.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I think he was in 11th grade.
Speaker 2:Now, this is just to refresh people's memory. So Brandon started was the one who came on. He was 14 at Leonardo's as the dishwasher and who started going to church. I asked if he could go to church with James and James just really took him under his wing, and I mean Brandon, to this day, is a part of our lives and family. And he's like a son and they took a trip, yeah, and it's just been a really neat relationship like father son, which is neat because you didn't really have a father who fathered you.
Speaker 1:And he didn't either.
Speaker 2:And he didn't either, but you became that role in his life. Yeah, so so Brandon, who started working for you, at. Chorus.
Speaker 1:So he asked me. He said you know they do cooking on Fox six and I said that's good. And he said you could go cook on Fox six. It's right up on the hill by Vulcan. And I said, brandon, they don't. They don't know who I am. And he was like, well, they do local chefs and you're a chef. So I said, well, that's nice, but I mean they don't care about me.
Speaker 2:Which is such a James response. Let me just say I didn't think they did.
Speaker 1:So I got a call. It was from a producer of good day Alabama and he said the reason I'm calling you is you have a young man. Well, brandon had asked me if he could pursue it and I was like sure, brandon, sure go ahead, whatever Do whatever.
Speaker 1:So, but I didn't think they would come from that. So he called and he said you have a young man that works for you. His name is Brandon and he is the most persistent person that I've ever known. So we do a cooking segment, you know, five days a week, and before we let anybody like come on the show, you have to do a test, like a test tape. So would you be willing to come in and do a test? And I was like, well, what does that mean? He was like you just bring in a recipe, you cook it, you prepare it on TV. And I was nervous but I was like, well, yeah, I mean yeah. And so he set up a cook test for me and I was kind of excited, but kind of not, because I was like I can't cook on TV.
Speaker 1:I mean I can cook but not on TV. So we get in there. It was a tape, so it wasn't live, so there's no pressure. There wasn't even a lot of the crew there because there was after hours and I go in there and Janice Rogers is standing there.
Speaker 2:So who's Janice Rogers?
Speaker 1:She's a local anchor for Fox six. Good day Alabama. She's been there since I think 92, 91, 92. The short story is I met Janice Rogers on TV like just watching her do the news on TV when I was in prison at Donaldson, so it's like I feel like I knew her.
Speaker 2:I've been watching you on.
Speaker 1:TV for like 15 years Long time, but it started in prison. You know the first three or four years because I watched the news every you know.
Speaker 2:I'm a news person.
Speaker 1:I want to catch up on the news. So here we are and I'm cooking. I think I did the grilled chicken tenderloin with honey, mustard and sauteed spinach and I was so like in awe.
Speaker 2:Were you starstruck.
Speaker 1:Well, no, it was like I'm standing here with Janice Rogers. You know how, you know how many hours I've watched Janice Rogers do news and of course I mean I didn't tell her that. I mean I told her later, until the beginning. But we got through. You had to do it and, like you have between four and six minutes, you know they'd already prepped me on all that and we did it and I wasn't even thinking about it and he came running out and he was like you're, you did it, you're amazing. And I said what do you mean? Can we use this on TV? And I was like, uh, yeah.
Speaker 1:But he said what we get with chefs is they can either cook or they can talk. He said but you have to be able to cook and talk if you want to be on TV. And he said you're just a natural, you just cook and talk. And I was like, okay, who knew? Um, but anyways, they set me up with a monthly. Uh, actually, no, in the beginning I did once a month on Good Day, alabama, and I did once a month on New Day, alabama, and that just helped me get my name out. You know more.
Speaker 2:And I love that. That started with Brandon's like just an athlete. Oh, I took him with me, he was with me, he was.
Speaker 1:he was amazed Um. But that's Brandon, that's how he is. That's how he is, that's what he does.
Speaker 2:So full circle. I mean just all that like struggle and like I say negativity, but I mean I really just mean like how hard it was, and then it even like that it culminated with like the arrest, but then after that there was some you could see, some things like start to happen. Well, there was a new life breathing in me after that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, because there was no way I got out of that.
Speaker 2:Right and I got out of that and I was like I'm so grateful.
Speaker 1:Full and clean break. Yeah, you know. But everything, everything about that was a miracle and I think I got steep. I didn't actually do a, steve did it.
Speaker 1:He was like recruiting people to write letters To who For what To the judge for like character references and stuff like that, and probably the most special one is the one that Lindo Brian wrote. But I have a box that I have all those letters in, because that you know that just I don't know it, just there's something about that Just very touching. But through through all that, I hate that. I'm talking about being negative, like towards Steve and towards Lenore and towards Jeremy, and it wouldn't always be that way, but this was the season I was in and it was hard and it was compounded because of Shauna and our relationship and all the things that we're going through.
Speaker 1:So I'm just I'm just trying to keep it real. Where was that?
Speaker 2:You're saying that you you kind of jumped. You said the letter that meant the most to you was the one from Linda O'Brien.
Speaker 1:Yeah, maybe, maybe, maybe we'll put that on Patreon and read it or maybe we'll read on the recap.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I want to read it. No, it's amazing yeah.
Speaker 1:Basically, what she said was I've been doing this for 18 years and I've had people come to her that said they changed and I've never really witnessed it be real until I met James and there's something different about him. His change was internal instead of like behavior modification, and I don't. For me, that's not crediting me, that's Jesus, because that's the way he changes us. You know he, he goes to work on the things that are behind the things that you do Right, like it's and I learned that, you know, when I was going through counseling in 1998, it's we focused on this. Like we focus on this, like somebody has a problem and they're mean or they're alcoholic or they're an addict or whatever. We focus on this. But it's not even like when you only focus on the this, you never get anywhere, because it's not about this, it's about that.
Speaker 1:So the problem is not that you have an anger. Like you have anger or addiction or any kind of sexual, any problems that you have. There's like a root behind that. So but as human beings, all we see is the fruit. We see what comes out of that. But Jesus don't really care about the fruit. He wants to get to the root, because if he can get to the bottom of what is creating that behavior, then it's changed forever. So it's gone. So it's not behavior modification.
Speaker 2:Give me all the roots, baby, dig them up.
Speaker 1:Yes, well, if you want that you have to be in relationship with him.
Speaker 2:And you know religion won't give you that.
Speaker 1:Going to church won't give you that. Judging people, fussing, doing all that caring on won't give you that. But when you get in a relationship with him, he changes you from the inside out and I'm thankful for that.
Speaker 2:Amen, I agree, okay. So what's next?
Speaker 1:So I think the next thing when you talk about you know the business was up and going, there was you were on Fox six, you had the news article we're just growing, we're growing, we're doing a thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But it started. It began to shift in me because I realized that my story, that I didn't always want to be public, was now public and that it was helping people. And then it not only helped people like as customers that started bringing people to me that wanted to work with me and my stat. Somewhere during that season I realized my purpose here was to have a restaurant and do business, but it wasn't so much the outreach that I had to my customers, it was going to be the outreach that I had to my staff. So people came to me that after my story became public that probably would have never become vulnerable to me and told their story, that came on board and worked with me and you know we can tell that another time.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean multiple stories of people that came. You know, working in a restaurant is not gonna be like an end all.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:But the seat, like being with me for a season and going through, and just neat, it's just neat. I realized this is where I'm at. Where I'm at is what I'm supposed to be. But I think in the next episode we need to talk about that summer of 2007, because and I know you've been itching at the chomp to- tell the story.
Speaker 2:OMG, listen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but it needs to be episode by itself.
Speaker 2:Stay tuned people For real.
Speaker 1:We've talked about. We talked about in season two when I was going through counseling. You know, I came to a place where I had to tell some of my secrets, my family secrets. And one of those family secrets was that, you know, my biological father was not my dad, was not James Keith Jones senior. I'm James Keith Jones junior. So my mom and my dad moved to Denver, colorado, right after they were married. He was in the Air Force. She didn't want to be there. She was straight out of Phoenix City and when they got, this is going to be the.
Speaker 1:She was 18 years old and when they got out there she was so frustrated with him that she split up with him and she got a little apartment, a little roommate, a little job and a little.
Speaker 2:Okay, that's part of the story I didn't know but what part? That she got her own apartment and roommate. No, she left him.
Speaker 1:They were split up.
Speaker 2:We need to not get crazy, because we're going to do this the whole next episode.
Speaker 1:Okay, anyways long story short. She had some relations with the Greek man, found herself to be pregnant and she thought she was pregnant with Mr Jones's baby, so they got back together. Did she think that though? Yes, she did I don't believe her she did.
Speaker 1:She was like counting up, you know whatever. She actually went to get an abortion because in you know, in 1972 or 71, 71, 72, whatever, like that was when abortion started being normal. But she said when she went she couldn't do it because she got scared. So anyways, they got back together, they reconnected they. He got transferred to Tampa, florida, to McDewaer for space. I was born, came out, you know they're white people, blonde hair, blue eyes, had a dark skinned and Greek baby and they decided to keep it a secret. But I found out when I was 17,. It caused me a lot of problems, but now was my time to go uncover that secret and find out who my biological father was.
Speaker 2:Best story ever, let me tell you. It is an eight story. It's insane actually.
Speaker 1:I mean, it's kind of like the getting arrested thing. You know, these things that happen, shouldn't have happened.
Speaker 2:In my mind it's even more insane than that. I mean that's insane, but it's just like when you first told me this, which I honestly, I can't even wait because I feel like you're going to say more details that I haven't learned, because when you get in the zone, you like remember things. So I mean I can't wait to stay tuned, Stay tuned, All right. Well, thanks for tuning in. All right, see you next time. See you next time, Bye, Bye.
Speaker 1:Hey guys, thanks so much for tuning in to the Straight Out of Prison podcast. For more exclusive content, head over to our website, jamesjonesco.
Speaker 2:Yes, you can subscribe by clicking on the become a patron button and that's going to get you access to our for real. Real, which is very different than the highlight real some very juicy content there.
Speaker 1:Good stuff, or you can look us up on Facebook and Instagram. Straight Out of Prison podcast.
Speaker 2:Yes, that takes the story to a whole new level where you can see some of the people that James talks about in his story and see some of the places that he's been. I've been loving it in your career Prison recipes yeah, all the things Good stuff, we'll see you soon, guys. Thanks, bye, bye, bye.