SPEAKER_02: 0:12

Alex, you have an amazing story, a story that's improbable, a story where people would say, How in the world could you have an eight-figure real estate portfolio? How could you now become a titan in the real estate world? How could you have a portfolio that spans the country? How could you now be a recognized, powerful speaker and coach, having been through what you've been through? Well, we're going to uncover those answers right now as I introduce you to my friend. It is a blessing to have you with us, Alex Donalo.

SPEAKER_00: 0:47

Well, so honored. Thank you for that introduction. And uh just grateful to be here. I love and admire you and everything that you do and you're about. So I'm just grateful for the opportunity to uh add value to you and your listeners.

SPEAKER_02: 1:02

Well, I'm so grateful for you to be here. And uh, I know we now have people intrigued. Like, what are you talking about? What is this story? So I am just gonna be quiet. And a kid who grew up in Ogden, Utah, who moved to Court d'Alene, Idaho at six years old, probably didn't envision that you'd go through some of what you went through in your life. But let me be quiet and allow you to tell your story that revealed your burn and became the platform for how you attack life today.

SPEAKER_00: 1:32

Absolutely. So uh the ultimate tragedy took place when I was 15, and my best friend and I were falsely accused and convicted of rape. So just to kind of go into how all that unfolded, basically I was sitting in Spanish class, and the school officer and the principal showed up to class and they they called me to the office. This wasn't really a rare occurrence because um, you know, I was I was getting in trouble a lot. So I figured maybe they'd caught us on the security camera smoking weed in the parking lot again or something. But um, when we got to the principal's office, the police officer said that he needed me to come to the police station and give a statement on a crime that one of my friends had committed. So I was at that point like shocked and confused, but I agreed to go with him. And then when we got to his car, he told me to put my hands on my head that I was under arrest. And he put me in the back of the car. I asked what I was being charged with. He said we discussed that when we got to the police station. When we arrived at the police station, my mom was already there. She was hysterically crying and screaming at the other officers. She said, she told me, don't say anything until we get an attorney. So at that point, I was freaking out. I had no idea what was going on. Um, they put me in an interrogation room with these two officers who proceeded to question me about my whereabouts on a specific night that was about a month or two months prior. And I obviously I couldn't remember where I was on that night. They weren't giving me any information, any details, any specifics. They just kept saying, Where were you on this night? And I said, I don't know. You know, I barely remember what I did last week. I don't remember where I was on this date. Can you give me more information? We just kept going back and forth in these circles. They said, You don't remember where you were on this night or committing a crime. And I said, No, just please tell me what I'm being charged with. And they finally said, You're being charged with rape. At that point, I was obviously shocked and confused, but I was also relieved because um, you know, I figured I knew I hadn't raped anybody, so I figured that either they had the wrong person or someone had fabricated a story about me, and you know, we'd be able to get to the bottom of this, clear things up, and they'd let me go. Um, so they went back to question me, okay. So, do you remember where you were on this night? Do you remember committing that crime on this night? And I said, I haven't raped anybody, I'm innocent. I don't know what you're talking about. Like, please give me more information. Who's saying this? Um, they weren't allowed to tell me her name, they could only give me her initials and her age. They they gave me her initials, they said she was 16 years old. I was, you know, more sexually active than I should have been at that time. And and unfortunately, the initials didn't help at all. I couldn't think of anyone with those initials. I figured they just had the wrong guy. And this question just went on and on. We were going in circles, and they just were not giving me any details. They wanted me to fess up to something that you know I hadn't done. And then I, by happenstance, I threw the window on the door, I saw my best friend's mom in the hallway, and she was also crying hysterically. And right then it clicked. I knew what night they were referring to, and I told the officers' officers everything. I told them that my best friend and I, my best friend Chad and I had slept with the same girl at a party. Um, and while it was inappropriate, it was completely consensual, and we absolutely did not rape anybody. And the next thing I knew, they were driving me to juvenile detention. And uh so when we got to juvenile detention, when I got to juvenile detention, I saw Chad in the jail cell. He was already there. We spent the night there, and then the next morning the officers came and told me I was being charged that we were being charged as adults and headed to big boy jail. So they transported me at that point to county jail. I spent a few nights there before um my parents were able to bail me out, and when I exited the jail, I was greeted by dozens of reporters, flashing lights, news vans. Our uh faces were all over the front page of the paper, all over the news channels. Um we even made national news and you know, the uh allegations were pretty serious that there was excessive force involved and we were facing life in prison. So at that point, I figured out through the tabloids essentially that we were facing life in prison. So um my my parents hired a hotshot attorney, Chad got a public defender, we were tried separately, we we both dropped out of school for obvious reasons and to focus on the court case. Um and the hearings ended up dragging out for a total of 18 months. There were a lot of nuances to the case. Um for one, she had actually made these accusations on seven other occasions. Um her story also kept changing throughout the course of the trial. We had witnesses brought in whose testimonies aligned with our side of the story. We passed polygraphs. So odds, odds were obvious, were you know that if we went to trial, it would have been very difficult for them to convict us. But during this long, drawn-out process, he and I both, you know, fell into a spiral of depression and self-sabotage. Um, I pretty much gave up the will to fight. I became suicidal. I ended up getting a misdemeanor possession charge. I got a DUI. Uh my parents sent me to the hospital for suicide prevention. And then they sent me to a reform camp in the desert wilderness camp in the desert for three months, and then they eventually shipped me off to boarding school because I just I'd given up. I was just continued messing up, throwing my life away. And um, and then while I was at boarding school, I heard from my attorney that Chad's public defender had convinced him to testify against me, and that he was going to essentially say that I was guilty and he was innocent as a way of hopefully, you know, getting him off scot-free. So then he ended up, when he got called to the stand, he changed his mind, he pled the fifth, he retracted that statement, and um, you know, it was a noble move, but the damage had been done. You know, they just confused the courts even more, giving them reason to doubt us. So things were pretty nuanced and convoluted. And when the prosecution finally offered a plea deal, I was faced with a really tough decision because at this point we were facing, you know, life in prison. Had we gone to trial, the prosecution offered a plea deal that was they were they were gonna lessen the charges to a non-sex offense that carried a maximum of 10 years in prison, and they were gonna recommend one year probation to the judge. So even though I wanted desperately to fight for my truth and go to trial, um, I decided not to risk it. Plus, Chad had accepted the plea deal, so I would have been fighting alone at that point. Um, so I accepted the plea deal. And then in his sentencing remarks, the judge basically said, you know, even though the events of that night are questionable and unclear, it was obvious that we were headed down the wrong path and needed to be set straight. And he threw the book at us. Maximum sentence, 10 years in prison. And um the worst part of it all was we were only we were still only 16 at the time. And so since we were minors, we had to be housed in solitary confinement for the first few months until they could figure out how to integrate us into general population. So, you know, solitary confinement, maximum security, 24 locked, 24-hour lockdown, that was pretty terrible. But then general population honestly wasn't much better because even though we weren't in on sex charges, they um they housed us with the other sex offenders. So we were categorized as sex offenders. And if you know anything about you know prison culture, sex offenders um are you know pretty hated in prisons and have a target on their back, and so that came with its own set of difficulties. So I ended up getting released after just one year. It was a long, excruciating year, the hardest year of my life. But um Chad unfortunately took his own life while incarcerated. And um you know that that only amplified my burn even more. Essentially, I was determined to become successful, to um show the world they were wrong about us, and to you know, forge a legacy for the both of us that superseded this dark chapter in our lives. Um so when I got out, I was on parole for a total of five years. I was struggling with severe depression, anxiety, PTSD, but I did everything I could to you know not let that hold me back. I got heavily involved in recovery groups and became you know a mentor and a leader. And inside those recovery groups, I started you know reading all the books, studying personal development, um, business, and I started my construction company. And then I also pursued my childhood passion of becoming an actor. So I had my construction company, but I also got an agent, and I had the opportunity to work on several films and television shows, and you know, worked alongside some of the biggest names in Hollywood, attended these red carpet events, even convinced my parole officer and my judge to let me move to New York for a semester to attend the New York Film Academy. And that was all that up leading up to that, I was about 19. And then when I moved back home to Cordelaine, uh I had my daughter when I was 20. And around that time, I decided that my passion for business outweighed my passion for being an actor. So um I my construction company evolved into flipping houses, buying rentals, and then eventually buying commercial properties. And like you mentioned today, we have uh an eight-figure portfolio, close to a thousand units nationwide. We buy about 20 million a year. Um, I have a great team around me. My wife helped me help me run the company, she's my COO. And we're getting ready to welcome my second daughter into the world in March. Um, and I guess just to cap it off, you know, and bring us to present times in 2020. Can I can I ask just one quick question before you get there?

SPEAKER_02: 13:26

You mentioned that living for him and for you became the burn. Was this something that you thought about every day, knowing, and I know we're gonna get to this part, knowing that you were absolutely innocent, and one day you believed that you would be cleared?

SPEAKER_00: 13:45

That's a good question. I mean, I lived every day knowing that I was innocent, but I like I mentioned before the podcast, I didn't know that I was gonna go back and continue continue the fight to clear my name.

SPEAKER_02: 13:59

I I was my goal was to clear my name through redemption, through my actions, through my accolades, through But during during that period of time, you were every day thinking of the burn to live for absolutely that became my survival. You knew you were innocent.

SPEAKER_00: 14:15

Yeah, that became my survival mechanism while I was you know preparing to get out, was I was envisioning the life that I was gonna create, all the extraordinary things that I was gonna do to redeem us. So then in 2020, after you know, this was only a few years ago, I that was when I finally decided to go back and clear my name officially. And I put together a legal team. I had no idea how it was gonna go. Um, I had to go back in front of the same judge. Uh it wasn't the same prosecutor, it was a new prosecutor at the time. The prosecutor contested it. My judge, you know, there was it all happened very quickly, but my judge spoke very few words. He just immediately approved our motion. Um, he was very stoic back at sentencing, very stoic, had a very, you know, it seemed that he had his mind made up that um that I was guilty, essentially, and everything seemed completely different this time around, whether it was, you know, everything he'd seen that I accomplished up to this point, the combination of that and Chad killing himself. Um, but he didn't even hesitate. He approved our motion, they dropped the felony, they sealed my record. And um, and then in 2023 was when I had my chance to tell my story on stage for the first time. I was, like you mentioned, a part of Eric Rock's man on a mission. I'm so grateful for him. Uh, you know, I joined that mastermind thinking it was sort of a business networking incubator. Come to find out, it was all about, you know, tapping into purpose and mission. And um, so everyone sort of got this opportunity to give a TED talk about their life and their story. And um I told my story for the first time, and I realized essentially that I'd been running from running from my past up until then, you know, trying to cover it up with success and achievements and put myself in the limelight as a successful real estate investor or Hollywood actor. And it was at that point, after giving my talk for the first time, that I discovered, you know, my true place in the limelight, which is a place of inspiration and impact and using my story for good. And um, you know, I'd say I'm only just in the beginning phases of speaking on stage and learning how to turn my pain into purpose, but I've gotten a glimpse at how my darkness can bring light to others. So I'm I'm determined to continue growing my impact.

SPEAKER_02: 17:01

And you know, I I this is one of the um reasons I wanted you to share your story, and it's a very, very powerful thing for me. Many you don't know this, um, many people have heard me, whether it be on the burn or hearing me speak. I had a very up and down and challenging relationship with my father, uh, you know, a dark relationship. There were parts that were great, there were lessons that were always learned. But my father was a trial attorney. And um, my dad was didn't lose a case for 15 straight years. I mean, he was a very successful, prominent trial attorney and did very well as an attorney. Um, my father always believed in pro bono cases. And a pro bono case, for the listeners that don't know, are cases when somebody does not have the money to represent themselves. Then through the ACLU, there's attorneys who will say, I will represent a certain number of cases and not charge fees. The main individuals that my dad always represented were the wrongfully accused. And um it makes me emotional because of the pain that uh my dad has. But um it it it brings tears to my eyes because of the strength and resilience that you have to fight a fight where you felt like a fight was taken away from you. And then to see your best friend lose his fight. Um, my my dad committed so much of his career on the pro bono side to fighting for individuals like you. And I remember the joy he'd come home and he'd say, Well, this person had this, one was a rape case, and this person, and my dad would be like, There's no way he did this. I heard the facts of the case, and it's you know, a lot of times people stop fighting for themselves. Um, and the fact that you now carry the burn on for your best friend, who I'm I'm sure they're in a day that goes by that you don't wish he just would have had that extra fight. And for you to now carry that on through the life that you have, you just you have great strength. And I just hope that people are listening because I'm I'm proud of you for finding the courage to not just know who you are and the truth of who you are, but now to be able to stand on a stage and not have shame in sharing your story, because there are many stories like yours, but there's also people out there that need to hear these tough, challenging stories because Alex, they give up. And you're an individual who's going to be a catalyst through stories like this, and the more that you share it. And I hope conversations that we've had and things that we've been able to do through our events or you know, through coach to coach is that you just continue to lean into that more because the world needs catalysts like you. So the people who give up on their fight when they know somebody said, This is what you the truth is of you, and you know it's not the truth, that they never stop fighting. So your your story is so beautiful and powerful.

SPEAKER_00: 20:05

Absolutely. Well, that means the world to me. And um yeah, you know, it was it was a horrific experience, but it it forced me to you know strengthen my my mind and um my willpower, my resilience. And obviously it, you know, it became my burn, the driving force that pushes me towards greatness. And honestly, it it um it strengthened my my confidence and my self-belief and myself, even though I had to overcome the PTSD and the doubt. I also I knew if I could survive this, I could survive anything. You know, I could take on the world and not be afraid of what life would throw at me.

SPEAKER_02: 20:49

So, my friend Joshua T. Osborne, welcome to the burn. Uh, we got to figure out what that alter ego is for you. But uh all this passion, this fire that you have, the relationships, the frameworks, a lot of people establish clarity of a direction they want to go, work ethic, habits, discipline, consistency. And a lot of it comes from pain. It comes from challenge, which I always encourage people. A lot of times that's where the burn comes from. So, this type of clarity, passion, fire, this type of approach to life, what is the burn for you? What was that pain? What was that challenge? What is it that you had to endure to be able to step into this very disciplined life of growth and success that you live now?

SPEAKER_01: 21:36

Yeah, I think um I come from a broken home, obviously. Um, and I think most of us do that push really hard and really strive and never give up, right? And so we go through a lot of hardship. So we understand what it is. Our pain tolerance has changed. And so if you go back and look at my life, it's like lived in a trailer park. Inside that freaking trailer park, I had like the worst trailer is rust on the outside, no carpet inside, floorboards. I even we even had a hole in their living room, blackberry bush growing up through it. Times that we didn't have water and and and uh electricity inside of there, um, times when I wouldn't see my own mother for 30 days. Um, and we had to learn to get through shit every single day. Um it was a different level of pain, you know. Um, given up for adoption at the age of 12, um, went to the adopted family, lived with them, got kicked out of there when I was uh 15, almost going on 16. Uh lived in my Dodge D50 RAM little pickup, little tiny pickup. I had to, I had to, this is such a good truck. I wish I could go find this truck. I wish I could go find this truck. I lived in it for a few years, but I'd have to uh you never had to cross a starter. So you had to take a screwdriver, reach down inside of it, and then you'd have to cross the starter to get it started because the starter wasn't working. Um, so I would be so embarrassed after school and after because I would wrestled and stuff. The only reason I finished high school at all is because I wrestled and I really loved wrestling. It was my passion, you know? And so I was like, I have to go to school so that I can wrestle. And that's all I could think about. Um, but I lived in my truck during this time. Some of the my my friends in high school would let me take showers there and different stuff. And obviously I was in sports all the time, so I could shower there, but I lived in this truck, and so a lot of pain, you know, um, a lot of pain comes from that being lonely, being all of that. I get out of high school, I really wanted to be a dentist. I actually was like, I'm gonna be a dentist, I'm gonna pull my family out of these generational curses, I'm gonna go and do all this. So I like my passion was to be a dentist, but I had no clue how to go to college. I had no clue how to fill out paperwork, I had no direction, no guidance um behind it. So I ended up uh graduating high school. And a few months after that, I ran into this kid who's a couple years older than me. Um, and he was doing really well. He had a really nice car and really nice stuff and all this stuff. And I was like, man, I'll just do what you're doing. Well, doing what he did got me five years in prison. Um, and so ended up in prison um until I was uh 24, almost going on, 25 years old, got out in 2009. Um, and uh, you know, in a few years in prison, when you first get in there, it's like prison gang stuff, fights, all this kind of stuff. They call it gladiator school. And so you go through a lot of pain in there. But imagine being in prison all alone, 18 years old, um, nobody to talk to, no family, no friends, no nothing, and just like being in that situation to where you almost get sucked into the environment, you know, and you start living kind of that environment. And then about three years in, a little two and a half years in, I came to the realization either one, I'm gonna learn how to be a better criminal in here, or I'm gonna be learning how to be a better human in here. And I chose the later. Um, ended up reading like a book a day, every single day in prison, just uh trying to learn business, um, learn just uh human psychology, like anything that I could learn, sales, all of that, and just kind of taking in that information, get out of prison. I'm like gung-ho, I'm ready to go at it, thinking I'm gonna start my first company and all that kind of stuff, and um get out, walk into my parole officer's office. And the first thing he does is he grabs my wallet because in prison, when you get out, they give you your license and all that kind of stuff when you get out so that you have it, your social security card. But he grabs my license and he's like, You're revoked. You're gonna have a license the whole time you're on parole. So I ended up not starting my own company, but going to work for an insulation company at$50,000 a year. Um they're working me like dog slaves, 16 hours a day. I'm riding the bus back and forth. But pain, look at all that pain, right? Sooner or later, about two years into that company, I decide fuck this, I'm gonna go start my own company. Um, actually had a mentor at that time. He owned a lot of companies in town. Um, I helped him uh to kind of chauffeur him. He was a pretty rich guy, but chauffeured him for free, all that kind of stuff. He and he kind of got me out of my own way to start my own company. Um, but that's where it all started. I started that company. I was able to put my passion into something of my own instead of something somebody else's. But once again, you go back to pain. There's a lot of pain there at the end of the day. Look at my story, it's pain after pain after pain after pain, struggle after standing back up. And I believe that's why I'm so successful in business. I was having this talk with one of my mentors. Um, he's actually from uh the same hometown as me and stuff. Um, and he's he's wealthy online as well. He does about a hundred million dollars a year online. Um, but I'm having a conversation with him, and he said, one of the reasons, and and he coaches quite a few of us, but I'm like the his highest student now. Um, and so he was like, one of the reasons you're so successful is that your pain tolerance is so high, your risk tolerance is so fucking high. And so when most people won't take a chance on themselves, get out of their own way and just run at it, Josh Osborne just says, fuck it, put it all on the line, let's go. If this all gets ruined, I've already gone through enough pain. I know how to rebuild.

SPEAKER_02: 26:25

That's where you know many people on the show have heard me say so many times that it's all about the shifting of your perspective to where somebody could tell me, no, or this doesn't go well, and I'll just fight because I watched my mom come to the dinner table with an IV stand to ask me how my day was at school when she was dying before my eyes and eventually and essentially, you know, passes away from amyloidosis 11 days before my eighth birthday. What could you possibly say or do to me in the business world or a personal setting that's worse than watching your mom come to the dinner table with an IV stand dying before your eyes and you're climbing under her IV wires to tuck her in at night because she can't make it to your bedroom because she's got no more strength? And, you know, so I think perspective is so important. I hope everybody listening is hearing that it's okay to have the pain. Like, look at the level of vulnerability Josh just shared. Like, do you think it's easy to share that he made mistakes? There were changes he could have made. But, you know, one thing I've always learned for me, and Josh, you know, you'd have to answer for yourself, but a lot of times we have to go through that pain. We have to go through a decision we wish we could change to figure out who you were destined to be. And I know for me, I'll take every bit of pain, every bit of challenge, every bit of loss I've ever had to go through to have the beauty that I have in my home, which is my greatest gift now, which is my two children and my wife Amy. Like I wouldn't change anything to keep those gifts that I have and the relationships with people that I love in my family. And so many of those relationships come because of the pain and challenge that you had to go through. Is that the same for you, Josh?

SPEAKER_01: 28:06

Dude, it's exactly the same. And the truth of the matter is what what what I really hear you saying, um, Ben, is the fact that a lot of people, you already have the pain, you just don't know it's there. And that's true. Like when you go back to me at the insulation company, I suppressed that pain just so that I could work for the man and just get through daily life and be stable or what people like to call stable. I suppressed all that pain so that I could do that. And it wasn't until I started confronting that pain to where it's not, it's not a bother to me to talk about anymore because I went through it and I'll go through it again. And I would never take it back. Um, but a lot of people we suppress and we kind of we have these traumas in life and we try to push them away like they never happened. Well, that you pushing that away is costing you years because you pulling that in, embracing that, understanding that pain, using that pain for purpose, that's where you're gonna take off. That's where life is just gonna dramatically change for you forever.

SPEAKER_02: 29:00

But help us understand, similar to my mindset, why have you poured so much into doing things behind the scenes to help others drive growth and become their best?

SPEAKER_01: 29:11

Because I I realized that one of the things that really separated uh my family from the rest, or why uh, you know, we ended up being broke and poor and all that, is because we were uneducated at the end of the day. And I believe that education should come to all. And I believe it's not just education, but it's also it's also desire. I think that a lot of people that have been suppressed by media and and different positions and different things that are said to them, or the kid happened to like me when tying freaking duct tape around my shoe because the soul came off and I haven't seen my mom in two weeks, so I don't know where to get shoes at. Those types of people, you know, we once again we suppress all the trauma. Um, and then we live in our unawareness at the end of the day. So a passion of mine is to get people to wake the fuck up. And I believe that it all comes back to. Four things. And so I'm always focused on these four things. One is getting people awareness. I want them to be aware of their surroundings, aware that they that they can control their outcomes every single day. Every day. It doesn't matter what you went through. It doesn't matter what trauma, if somebody raped you, it doesn't matter. None of that shit matters. Have awareness to it. Learn how to start using that freaking pain on purpose for your purpose of what you want to chase in life. And it might be going out and making sure all pedophiles get caught. That's great. Fucking let's go. But I want you to have that awareness. I want you to come out here in this world and I want you to share your passion with the world. I want you to live, right? Next is accountability. Once we have awareness, how are we taking accountability? How are we, how, how are we every single day making sure that we're accountable to that awareness and we're putting that that that into motion really at the end of the day? And a lot of that comes back, accountability comes back to communication, getting your message out, right? So we have awareness and then we have accountability of telling people about what happened to you and how you're going to utilize it and how you're going to get it out there so that you can be accountable to get it out there so that people can learn from it because it's so fucking valuable, right? And then next is tracking. I always talk about tracking in life. It's like, how can I get people then to start tracking all of this in their life that they're doing the daily consistent things that are going to in the long term, they might not happen today, they not might happen next year. They might not happen until year three or four or five, but they're going to happen if you're consistent. And if you're tracking them, you'll start to become consistent in your life. And then last, once I have the tracking dialed in, I have them take massive, imperfect action every single day towards their goals, towards their awareness, towards their accountability, towards their tracking, and just continue on that cycle every single day while working on their relationships. And so a passion for me is just to make sure that not a single kid out there ever has to go through what I went through in order to hit the levels in which I've hit. I believe that each and every one of them, they don't have to go through as much pain. They might live in a trailer park right now, but somebody out there somewhere should be able to reach a hand out to this kid and guide him. Don't be his fucking hero, but be his guide. Stand up and guide this kid to where he needs to go. And I believe a lot of that comes back to education. A lot of that comes back to Ben just getting, if I could get a hundred high school kids in front of you and we only reach two to three of them that lived in that trailer park and are going through that pain, but it connects with them and it changes their direction in their life and they become a dentist instead of going to prison, then that's where my passion lies, is right there with those kids that don't have what we all know to be working now, right? Um, and so I just want to put it in front of them. I just want, I want to be out there now, um, just putting my message out as much as possible so that it just comes across one of these kids is or one of these adults, because there's adults that are 25 that, like he said, that that aren't living with that pain, that are suppressing that. But if we can just get it out of you, then you can actually live. You're still a kid. You're still a kid that we gotta open up. We gotta get you opened up, we gotta get you living fucking life. And that's that's what that's where my passion lies in that.