The Power Transformation Podcast
The Power Transformation Podcast hosted by Alethea Felton, celebrates the resilience, determination, and hope of entrepreneurs, thought leaders, and visionaries who have conquered adversity and various challenges to create meaningful lives.
With her own inspiring journey of living with autoimmune disease since birth (and now thriving), overcoming severe stuttering, and more, Alethea's authenticity adds depth to intimate conversations with her guests who have overcome extraordinary obstacles.
Alethea's heart-centered, introspective, and engaging style elevates this podcast into a movement that inspires listeners to embrace their inner strength, cultivate empowerment, and rise wiser, stronger, and more courageous to achieve their next level of success.
The Power Transformation Podcast
110. Season 3 Premiere-From Prison to Prosperity: Resilience, Redemption, & Real Estate with Toriano Lockett
What if the life you thought was over was actually just the beginning? In this powerful Season 3 opener, Toriano "Tory" Lockett proves that no situation is too far gone to turn around. From being sentenced to 30-years prison to building a seven-figure business empire, Tory reveals how faith, determination, and financial literacy fueled his comeback, leading to the creation of the Built for Wealth Academy, which empowers underserved communities. Discover how he broke free from the bondage of his past to create a legacy of hope, wealth, and freedom for others, and how you can, too.
Connect with Toriano:
Episode 110's Affirmation:
I am stronger than my challenges and wiser because of them.
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What if your biggest setback is actually your greatest setup for success? Welcome to the Power Transformation Podcast, where I, your host, alethea Felton, the Resilience Architect, have inspiring stories and real conversations with people just like you, those who are determined to rise above and thrive beyond life's challenges. Here we celebrate the courage and hope that it takes to reclaim your power, rewrite your story and step into the life that you were destined to live For. Now is the time to create your power transformation Season three. Welcome to season three. I am overjoyed that the Power Transformation Podcast has made it to its third season, and it is because of listeners and followers like you that have made it possible. And what other way to kick off season three than with the incredible guest that we have today, mr Toriano, or Tori Lockett. His story of transformation is inspiring and uplifting how he went from imprisonment to becoming a seven plus figure entrepreneur. And I have the honor of knowing his amazing wife, dobri, for they are a power team in terms of real estate, coaching and so much more. And we are going to dive right into this, and if this is your first time, I would like to welcome you here to the show. So much is going to be happening in season three and we are audio only for right now, but stay tuned very soon for some upcoming announcements regarding that.
Alethea Felton:I was at first going to stop the affirmations for season three, but I received feedback that said that the affirmations are helping my audience. They're helping you, and I want you to let me know, leave me feedback as to how these affirmations at the beginning of the show are transforming your life, and so we're going to dive right in here so that we can hear all that Tori has to say about his story, but also how you, too, can change your life. This is today's affirmation. I will say it and then afterwards you repeat it I am stronger than my challenges and wiser because of them. I am so excited today to have Tori Lockett and, as you all heard from this intro, this is a special guest based on the fact that I have met Tori through his amazing wife and the fact that Tori has done so much, just not in his own life, with his own family, but in terms of the community and the people around him. This is going to be such an exciting, inspiring interview and, tori, welcome to the Power Transformation Podcast.
Toriano Lockett:Thank you, alethea, I'm so excited to be here. Thank you for having me. You are so welcome.
Alethea Felton:It is an honor to have you and, oh my goodness, what an incredible story you have, and I know that a lot of the world already knows it, but more people need to hear it. So we're going to jump right into this and what I always like to do. First, I like to just have a fun, random, icebreaker question, just so we could get to know you more. Nothing about what we're going to talk about, but just fun. So, tori, this is my question for you what is your favorite meal of the day and what is your favorite food Like? What is something you could always eat? So, is it breakfast, lunch, dinner, then, on top of that, what's your favorite?
Toriano Lockett:food. Okay, I'm going to say I I'm gonna have to be number one salmon, salmon, broccoli and sweet potato oh, that's good.
Alethea Felton:So would you eat that for, say, lunch or dinner?
Toriano Lockett:probably. Yeah, then I'll look. Sometimes I eat it for dinner, sometimes I eat it for lunch like yesterday.
Alethea Felton:I ate it for lunch, so it varies wow, so so are you a pretty good cook too no, I'm far from that.
Toriano Lockett:I eat.
Alethea Felton:I eat out seven days a week probably but ideally it would be salmon, sweet and safe, right?
Toriano Lockett:yeah, okay, you know something you know, a salad or something you know. The salmon is my favorite.
Alethea Felton:I can eat it every day exactly, and you know the way that you answer so quickly that no, you aren't a good cook because y'all he is from Alabama, so you automatically think of that good cooking.
Toriano Lockett:That is absolutely true.
Alethea Felton:Yeah, but.
Toriano Lockett:I'm far from that.
Alethea Felton:And so see, I'm from southeastern Virginia, so I'm right by the North Carolina line, and trust me when I say we are still southerners here. So I automatically think about good cooking when it comes to the south.
Toriano Lockett:Now it is some good cooking. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm just not doing the cooking.
Alethea Felton:Exactly Well, tori. Thank you for that. That was just something random so that we could get to know you better. But I think that the real question next is truly to ask you, tori if a person were to come up to you and say who is Toriano, tori Lockett, how would you describe him? How?
Toriano Lockett:would you describe him? I probably would say that, first of all, I'm a true man of God. I like to put God first in everything I do. I'm a family man. I love my family. I like to spend time with my family.
Alethea Felton:Yes.
Toriano Lockett:And I'm an entrepreneur to my heart. I have an entrepreneur spirit. I think I've always been an entrepreneur, since I was. I noticed that when I was a little kid. So just in a nutshell, I noticed that when I was a little kid, you know. So just in a nutshell, you know, just I like educating, I love to read. That's just me. You know I like exercising. So those are the things that you know. So I put God first, family, educating myself, and then being an entrepreneur is that's my life, that's everything for me.
Alethea Felton:Yes, indeed it is, and you're an entrepreneur. It is, and you're an entrepreneur, a husband, a father, a published author.
Alethea Felton:So much more and your passion in terms of something that you really help people with is actually wealth building, and that is so beautiful. But before we get into that, you know I brought up early about how your early upbringings were from Alabama, from the great state of Alabama, specifically Mobile, if I'm not mistaken. That is absolutely true. So the fact that you're this entrepreneur now as an adult take us back a little bit to your upbringing in Alabama and what was a pivotal moment in their early upbringing of your childhood that led you towards this path of entrepreneurship and personal transformation.
Toriano Lockett:Well the thing. So I grew up back in Mobile with my grandmother, my grandmother and grandfather. What grandmother most had raised me, and it was like seven of her kids living in the house. We lived in a shotgun house and you know what a shotgun house is yes, and then you can see straight through the front door out to the back door.
Toriano Lockett:and so imagine a two-bedroom, one-bath home, all us living in this home, and me and my little brother was in there. We like me, my brother and my uncle and aunt we all slept in the same room and then we made the dining room area out of a bedroom and you walk right into the kitchen. That's how small the house was. But long story short, I was born and raised in Maysville, in a town called Maysville in Mobile, alabama, and in my area it was super druginfested. I mean, I could walk a block from my house and you will see drug dealers, prostitutes, robbers, everything you can name under the sun that crime is committed. I was surrounded by it as a young kid, but my thought was, from entrepreneurship perspective is, and it was a negative experience but I used to look at a lot of the drug dealers. And I'm like negative experience, but I used to look at a lot of the drug dealers, and I'm like these guys are really getting this money out here.
Toriano Lockett:And I'm like, even though I was in school, you know, I walked by this every day, so I was like you know what? And my uncle's an uncle. I had an uncle that was dealing drugs and I had an aunt that was dealing drugs, so it was almost like I was surrounded by this environment to not miss this in a sense, you know, because you know, you're a product of your environment.
Toriano Lockett:in my personal opinion, you know what I'm saying. Whatever your environment is, that's what you're going to be in most cases. I would think you know some people make it out, some don't, but that was one of my pivotal moments in terms of recognizing and my grandfather was a. He owned a bunch of hit houses, so he was an entrepreneur as well. So my first experience is because I used to help him out a lot, like we used to go in there and put in the rock colas in his house. He used to serve food to his clients.
Alethea Felton:So I was like okay, yeah, this is what I want to do.
Toriano Lockett:I don't want to work for nobody, I want to be an entrepreneur. But I realized that at an early age and from there it just kind of took off. You know, I ended up. I don't know how far you want me to go.
Alethea Felton:Yeah, so we can start there. So when you said an early age, approximately how old were you when you actually started these entrepreneurial endeavors? And yes, although we acknowledge the fact that maybe it wasn't what's considered the most positive aspect, it's just the fact you had that keen insight in knowing that, hey, I can make money and make something lucrative off of this that can continue growing. So how old, approximately, were you when you actually connected that.
Toriano Lockett:Let me take a step back.
Toriano Lockett:So when I was younger I realized that me and my cousin, we used to cut grass all the time in the neighborhood. Oh so you know our parents, like we wanted to go to a concert, that's what we had to do. We had to go out and make some money. If we wanted to go to the skate ring, we had to go out and make some money. So we would cut grass and hustle. And I think that was my first initial step.
Toriano Lockett:And then, as I got older, in high school, I had friends that was, you know, dealing drugs, and I saw what they was doing. They would spend $100 and make $200, you know, buying these drugs. And I'm like, hey, y'all, definitely y'all what y'all doing. Let me figure this out. I'm too slow. I'm doing all this labor work and I'm cutting grass. I might need to go over here and spend $100 so I can make $200. So once I figured out that you know the math, that, hey, I can spend $100 buying these drugs and double my money, and I just started scaling from there. I was probably about, I would say, 14 or 15 when I first started dealing in drugs.
Alethea Felton:Wow, wow.
Toriano Lockett:About 15 years old and start dealing in drugs. Wow, wow, by 15 years old. And it was.
Alethea Felton:It was just it was amazing, but most guys I hung out with were all the way older than me exactly, and so I was a younger guy, yeah, and so almost in a sense, you were learning or being apprenticed, informally in a way, of how to learn this whole drug game and how to make it an actual lucrative empire. And so as you grew up older, you know, into this type of a lifestyle because of the fact this was how you knew how you could make money, make it grow as you kept moving up the ranks with it. Tell us about a challenging time in your life that happened. That was really a turning point and a catalyst, and what I'm talking about, tori, is a huge part of your story and testimony, frankly, is you ended up imprisoned, but I'm talking to you now and you're a free man. So take us there in terms of that significant prison sentence and what happened, in terms of that challenging experience becoming a turning point for your life and your career.
Toriano Lockett:Absolutely so. I was around 22 when I got arrested, because I started at 15, but I absolutely I started scaling from small drug dealer to a large drug dealer. I went from rocks to kilos. So when I was at the age of 22, I ended up getting busted from a friend of mine Well, not a friend, but a guy that I was giving drugs on consignment. He ended up cooperating and telling on me, so I ended up getting caught in my aunt's home. I was in there with a friend of mine. They kicked the door down and when I went to prison I was in the county jail.
Toriano Lockett:Long story short, I'm thinking, hey, you know, I'm going to get out of here the next. You know, I'm going to get me a lawyer and I'm going to be out. But the federal government picked the case up and there was no coming home. It was like when I went to court they said son, you're facing 360 months to life, and that's actually where the title of my book came from. When I said 360 months and I don't know if you're really familiar with 360 months, but that's 30 years to life and I imagine being I've never really been in no serious trouble.
Toriano Lockett:I've probably been to the county jail but never been locked up. We just went in and got out from a traffic ticket, so it was nothing serious. So now this was very serious for me. Here I am, 22 years old, with a six month old daughter, just had a baby, about to go to prison for 330 years to life, pretty much. So that was the starting point for me, but then I ended up going to federal prison and when I got to federal prison I ended up doing 14 years total, but my 11th year in prison I was in Coleman Florida. It might have been my 12th year, but I was in Coleman Florida and my aha moment was the fact that, because I was playing the blame game on everything that I was doing, I blamed everything, all my problems. I blamed on my parents, I blamed on God, I blamed on my auntie, I blamed on everybody but myself.
Alethea Felton:Tori, let me pause you here real quick because I think this is significant. When you initially heard you could get 30 years to life, take us back to that moment. How did you process that? Or did you say this can't be real? Take us back to that moment.
Toriano Lockett:So when I first heard that I'm like, first of all I didn't even register in my mind. So when I went back to my cell after being sentenced, you know, I really just sat there and started adding it up. And I'm like man, because they were trying to give me a life sentence. And when you get life in the feds, they put the C's on your paper. That means you'd never come home. So imagine a young man at 22 years old and they gave me 30 years. So they gave me the bottom end of the guidelines and I just I mean really I couldn't believe it. I was so thrown I thought it was a fantasy. But until I realized it was reality, I mean it was like man. I almost had. You know, it was like tears coming to my eyes when I went back to the cell because I was tore up.
Toriano Lockett:I'm like man I lost everything just from selling some drugs. I'm like man I lost everything just from selling some drugs. It was like I murdered somebody. Did I really kill somebody? These are the thoughts that were going in my mind at the time, even though I had all these character witnesses up there telling people that hey, Toya was a good guy, I didn't cause no trouble. But hey, the federal government didn't want to hear that. All they want to know is you was out here selling drugs. You're going to pay the price.
Alethea Felton:Exactly. And so when you started off in the county jail, which is, of course, still in Alabama, how in the world did you end up in Florida?
Toriano Lockett:Well, actually my first prison, I was sent to El Reno, oklahoma first of all. So the federal marshals came and picked us up from the county jail, took me and some other guys. We actually went to New Orleans, louisiana. We drove from Mobile to Louisiana.
Toriano Lockett:We got on a federal government plane and we all shacked down. I mean it was scary because you got guys that had masks on their face and all this stuff, because it was really dangerous. You know what I'm saying. So I'm here, I am a small guy from Mobile, alabama. I really got myself in some serious trouble, you know what I'm saying. So we get on this government plane and they fly us around. They flew us to Miami and then to Fort Lauderdale, then back out to Oklahoma City and Oklahoma City is like a holdover that you sit there and I was going to El Reno, oklahoma, which was about 30 minutes from that county jail. I mean the holdover, the federal holdover, hummel, which was about 30 minutes from that county jail. I mean the holdover, the federal holdover. So I went to El Reno for three years. This was a penitentiary for the federal government and I was there with Timothy McVeigh like John Gotti's brother.
Toriano Lockett:Wow, oh yeah, I was.
Alethea Felton:That's big time.
Toriano Lockett:This was a gang-infested prison. The first day I got on the compound in the federal prison I watched the guy get his head split wide open. I'm like the first day I ain't even do. I'm like what I got myself into. I'm surrounded by Dainston, the Cypress Crips and Blood Aryan Brotherhood every gang you can think of was on this compound.
Alethea Felton:And for viewers and listeners who might be unfamiliar, since I do have some global watchers when he said Timothy McVeigh, that was a huge case back in the 1990s of the Oklahoma City bomb, where that was a major, historic, tragic event because so many babies got killed, people got killed. He blew up the federal building in Oklahoma City, so that's major. He eventually passed away, but you know still just the fact, you were there. And then, of course, when you said John got his brother, I mean, wow, criminal mastermind. This was actually creme de la creme in a negative way, y'all in terms of who you would be in prison with, absolutely.
Toriano Lockett:Wow Go ahead.
Alethea Felton:I'm sorry and this was the first time you ever got a rest, absolutely absolutely, absolutely, absolutely, absolutely so.
Toriano Lockett:So how did I go from?
Toriano Lockett:yeah so how did I ended up at coleman is the fact that. So I stood there, I stayed at oklahoma for three years and I was an associate warden. She was a black lady and I kept telling her that I wanted to get moved from there, you know, because it was so much. You know I was 17 hours away from home, didn't really? I had one visit, probably the whole three years I was there, and so she ended up giving me ship to alabama, to talladega, alabama. Okay, so I felt like I was at home.
Toriano Lockett:When I got to talladega, talladega, I actually felt like I was free, to be honest with you. So imagine going from one federal prison to the next and feeling like you're free. That's how impactful it was when I got to Talladega. So I stayed in Talladega for like four to five years and then I ended up going to a lower security because I ended up getting a time reduction from the 360 months to 180 months, which was 15 years. Wow. So when I went to some to my security drop. So I went from a penitentiary to a medium. Talladega was a medium prison. Then I went to a camp, which was right here in Atlanta, and when I got to the camp in Atlanta. I didn't know how to act. I was so free. They allowed us to do so much so I actually got in trouble while I was there.
Toriano Lockett:Because, yes, I got caught with a cell phone. We was leaving and coming back, all kind of crazy stuff so I ended up getting put in the penitentiary in Atlanta behind a 40-foot wall right here at our downtown Atlanta penitentiary. So I stayed in the whole one year there and, to be honest with you, one year in the penitentiary in Atlanta, I'd rather do 10 years somewhere else than to do one year in Atlanta penitentiary. Really it was that bad. You're talking about four inmates sleeping in the same cell at one time and you only got two bucks in there. You take a shower once a week. You know what I'm saying. You really don't get no visits or none of that.
Toriano Lockett:I stayed there a year but after leaving there a year, after getting shipped, I got shipped to Coleman Florida. And when I got to Coleman Florida, that's where everything kind of shifted me. That's where the aha moment came in and I realized that I was playing the blame game, because one day I called my aunt on the phone and I asked her for some money, because all the inmates in prison, they always need money. So when I called her for some money this time she was like, well, I can't get it to you right now and I and I'm like, you know I got upset, you know I was like, okay, you know I kind of hung the phone up and left.
Toriano Lockett:But at that moment something came over me. I realized it was not, it was just God speaking to me, but it was saying that, hey, son, you got to accept responsibility. You can't keep blaming everything on everybody else. You can't blame it on me yourself. You made this choice and when I accepted that responsibility, right then and there, in that moment, my whole life changed. Everything was shown right there.
Alethea Felton:So, even knowing the fact, when you went in, you had a six month old that had to have been eating at you over the years, knowing that you weren't there to be there in the early years and the upbringing of your child. So what was it about God's voice speaking to you that finally clicked to say I can't keep living like this. I have to do something different.
Toriano Lockett:It was just. It was just, it was a feeling. It was a feeling. It was like God spoke to me directly like this you cannot keep blaming yourself or playing the blame game. Son, you got to accept Once. I said I'm going to accept responsibility and move forward and my mama ended up sending me a Bible about a week later after that and I started reading the Bible. I started getting all these self-help books, learning because I started kind of changing my mindset then at that point and I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur when I got out. So I started hanging around inmates in there that was actually entrepreneurs but just got in trouble and was in prison.
Toriano Lockett:But they understood the game you know, so I started hanging around guys like that that was teaching me the game, and one of the guys that was a good friend of mine in there. He told me one day. He said hey, tori. He said, man, if you want to make it in this world I mean you want to make it in this world get out of here. He said you got to change your approach. He said you got to change your attitude. And it pissed me off, you know, because I'm thinking who are you talking to Tell me what you know? But he was telling me right.
Toriano Lockett:I didn't really accept it well, at that time. But later on I realized what he was doing and it changed my life. You know what I'm saying. I I had to put on the big boy pants. I had to change the game. So after I started reading these self-help books and reading the Bible, I started going to church and inside the institution and everybody started calling me Mr Positive. That's how much I've changed. You know what I'm saying. It was an amazing transformation. It was like I was physically locked up, but my mind wasn't locked up. It changed the game for me.
Alethea Felton:That is so beautiful, because faith for you is definitely a cornerstone of your transformation, and the way that you embrace faith and how it took a part in your journey not only did while you may have been physically incarcerated, it's just the beauty of the fact that you were spiritually liberated.
Alethea Felton:And so you, you knew that once you got out, you had to stay on the straight and narrow, and so that leads me to when it was finally time for you to be released and you come out of prison. Um, take us to that moment of how you made up your mind, without a shadow of a doubt, that you did not want to end up down this path again, and you actually subsequently started a commercial cleaning business and you took that and, tori, you transformed that into a seven figure enterprise. So take us on that journey of you leaving prison, how you had to get reacclimated to your daily life, and how you chose to say look, I'm going to make something of myself, because this is what God intends for me to do make something of myself, because this is what God intends for me to do, absolutely so, man, I get chills every time I think about this.
Toriano Lockett:So the day I left prison, I mean it was like it was a feeling like no other. When I tell you, it was a feeling like this I don't even know what heaven felt like, but it probably felt like, I'm sure. But it was a feeling that I can't even really explain to you, to be honest, but I had two friends of mine that came and picked me up from Coleman, florida, and I had one outfit that a friend of mine sent me in in the books, the paperwork that I had. So I left that day. They drove me to Atlanta, georgia, to the hardware house, and when I got to the hardware house, each one of them gave me $100 a piece and you know, we kind of just shook hands, did our manly thing. And when I got out of that car that day and got to the hardware house, you know I couldn't believe. I mean, I'm actually in the real world. I got to start all over.
Toriano Lockett:After being gone 14 years in prison, I got to make something happen. So when I get in the hardware house, first thing I got to do, I got to find a job. So I think about it. I've been gone 14 years, so who going to hire me? You know? So you know, I was catching the buzz going out looking for jobs, trying to do interviews, but nobody would hire me because of my background. So there was this young lady that owned a security company, her and I think it was her husband, and she gave me an opportunity. My first job was a flashlight cop, believe it or not, coming out of prison.
Toriano Lockett:Wow the irony of that, my first job was a flashlight cop. I was making $7 an hour but I had to get a hair warehouse 20% of that. Imagine the mindset I got to have. You know what I'm saying. I went from that mindset. I was working for a pharmaceutical company here in Alpharetta, georgia, as a flashlight cop. You know what I'm saying. So I went from that mindset. I was working for a pharmaceutical company here in Alpharetta, georgia, as a flashlight cop. I love the job. It was pretty good.
Toriano Lockett:But you know, but I always had my vision. I kept my vision. I kept God in front of me because I knew where I was heading. Now that was situations where people would come to me guys, man, you know you're going to do this. You know I'm try to get your drugs again. But I was so focused. I was determined to do things the right way this time and scale my business. So I went from that to several odd jobs to meeting a friend of mine that started the commercial cleaning business and she was very successful. So I helped her a few times and after helping her for a while she said Tora, listen, it's time for you to try your own thing. You want to try this Because she helping her for a while, she said Tora, listen, it's time for you to try your own thing. You want to try this Because you know what I wanted to do.
Alethea Felton:First of all, I started a personal training business out because I had got certified while I was in prison. Oh wow.
Toriano Lockett:Yes, I started that business. That lasted a little while, but I didn't have the business acumen. I didn't have it all the way together. On the positive side, it was the business side. So it didn't have it all the way together. On the positive side, it was the business side, so it didn't last long. But when I got into the commercial cleaning side I learned a little bit from Dale, which was a good friend of mine and she was making like a half a million dollars a year and I'm like you know I want some of this. So, long story short, I ended up borrowing some money from my wife's credit $700, bought some used equipment, started a cleaning company and from there I went from $7 an hour to borrowing $700 from my wife to creating a seven-figure commercial cleaning business and I would start cleaning up colleges. I was a subcontractor with one company and the first contract they gave me was a $40,000 job.
Alethea Felton:Wow.
Toriano Lockett:And I didn't know what I was doing at all. But what I did know was you know what? Let me go find somebody I know they know what they're doing, Even if I don't make all the money. So I went and got some guys that knew what they were doing. We went to South Carolina to this hospital, stayed in a hotel for a week, did a strip and wax job and I think that week I walked away with like $5,000.
Alethea Felton:My goodness.
Toriano Lockett:And I was like, oh, this is it. So I went from there to then they offered me a contract at a college called Georgia Southern University and I went from there to making six figures in three months and then I went from there to making six figures in three months and then I went from that to making 250 grand every three months. Then I went from there to almost making a half a million because I got another contract with a private school. I started a whole nother company with another guy and I was doing a private school here in Atlanta, georgia, called Pace Academy. We were the first blacks to enter this school to do cleaning or any type of public service, but we have a million dollar contract with them. So I was like, hey, I was making money hand over fist. You know, and I'll be honest with you, I was blowing a lot of it initially but, I learned a concept you know.
Toriano Lockett:My grandma always taught me. You know live below your means. That's the only thing that saved me. Even though I was spending a lot of money, I still was living below my means or within my means.
Alethea Felton:And that taught me a valuable lesson. Chills and just are in awe thinking about how you went from literal imprisonment with the possibility of not ever getting out to having the miraculous happen.
Alethea Felton:That's a miracle that you got 14 years and able to get out, use that entrepreneurial spirit for good, continue that transformation. And the question I kind of want to go back to now is this the fact that you said, to really get started, that your wife pretty much helped you plant that seed into getting that business started. Started, tory, how in the world did you feel?
Toriano Lockett:knowing that you had a wife that stuck with you through all of this. Well, let me back up. Let me back up. So my wife, let me tell you that story, so she wasn't the one who I was with before I went to prison.
Alethea Felton:Oh, I see Okay.
Toriano Lockett:So what happens is, when I got out of prison, I had a cousin of mine that introduced me to my wife While I was at the halfway house. I met my wife while I was at the halfway house. I was on house arrest, so I was staying with my sister on house arrest.
Toriano Lockett:So me and my wife talked on the phone. She didn't even know I was incarcerated, she didn't know none of that. So we talked for six months on the phone. You know I had anger. She ain't done none of that. So we talked for six months on the phone. You know what I'm saying? Just kind of getting to know each other, yeah. And then as soon as I was released on because I had six months to have her out, so as soon as I was released from that I met her at a club in Atlanta, georgia, in Roswell, and from there we hit it off and about a year later, I think maybe, we got married and we've been married. What now? What 14 years?
Alethea Felton:Wow, but it's just the fact, though. Even after she found out you had been in prison, she stuck with you.
Toriano Lockett:Absolutely she did. She knew, I guess, and she was more sort of bred when I first met her and a lot of women probably wouldn't have done that, but I guess she saw the potential. I guess she took the risk and I see the potential in him and I'm going to ride with him, I'm going to stay with him. That's kind of how I look at it.
Alethea Felton:Exactly, and that's really a blessing. And that could be a whole other episode in and of itself, about the fact that she stuck with you and saw something that God had shown her in you, regardless of where y'all are now. I'm just talking about, then, just the initial fact where she trusted something in you enough to say I will give you this money, let's make this happen and the fact you've been able to have it to grow. And so I bring that up, because what would you say to a person, tori, who might be almost at the point of hitting rock bottom Maybe they weren't in prison, but had something else going on, where they're literally starting over. So what would you tell a person who is trying their best to hold on to their faith and to integrate faith into their own paths to success? What would you tell them?
Toriano Lockett:Right. From my experience I would share, first of all if they got faith in God. That's number one for me. But I also become an avid reader. I love to read. I don't waste my time. Everything I do I try to get a return on my investment.
Toriano Lockett:So when I say read, I like to read a lot of self-help books. I go to a lot of seminars. I hung around the right people because your environment is key. I learned from the past that the reason I probably got into the drug game because of the environment that I was in. So I figured if I got into a positive environment and the guys that were ahead of me, I could soon. I would soon be like them if they were very successful. So I would highly tell, I would highly recommend that a person actually read a lot. Get around the right people, because mindset is so crucial. If you ain't got the mindset, I don't care how much you want to make money, how much you, because a lot of people want to reach to the goal or get the result. Without becoming the person first. I would just say, hey, anybody can turn their life around. If I can do it, if I can come from my situation after doing 14 years in prison. Start over, turn my life around. Anybody can do it.
Toriano Lockett:So I would definitely share with them this keep the faith, have faith in God and get around the right people, Because if you get around successful people, that's number one. And don't never give up, because behind every disruption when you're intending to do something, there's going to be some resistance, there's going to be some disruption in your life and a lot of people give up too fast.
Alethea Felton:So I would just say, be consistent and stay the course. And the fact of the matter is that when you did this cleaning business, you didn't stop there, but also you eventually got into real estate investing, which was really a game changer for you. So how did you decide that you wanted to go into that? And a person might see your experiences now and say, wow, it must have been smooth sailing for him. So how did you get into that real estate investing and what challenges have you experienced on this road of entrepreneurship? Because it's one thing to earn seven figures, it's another thing to maintain it and to have it to grow.
Toriano Lockett:Okay, so, so, first of all, let me throw this out there. There's definitely some challenges and I'll say this right off the top. You know, throughout my years, you know, and I'll be honest I probably lost three $400 or more. You know, and you know my first deal in real estate I lost like a hundred grand. You know, because I didn't have all the pieces of the puzzle and I was trusting people and didn't really understand the game. But the cleaning business was my cash cow, so I knew I needed to have something to make to generate wealth. I knew that entrepreneurship and real estate were two of the biggest wealth builders in America. I understood that piece. So I knew I had an active income, but I also needed a passive income. I always used to hear your money needs to be working for you just as hard as you're working for the money.
Toriano Lockett:So that was one of the things that made me really dive into real estate. And I started flipping because I like flipping, you know, because I was flipping cars before I got into real estate, oh yeah. So I was in the car business too for a minute. So that just kind of reminded me of the I guess the George game in a sense, but it was in a positive aspect, you know so. But I got into real estate and that's the biggest thing I'm doing now today. So what I do now is I buy properties and flip them, and I buy properties and hold them throughout Georgia and Alabama currently.
Toriano Lockett:But, this was something that the cleaning business definitely allowed me to prepare into real estate, and it allowed me to be able to start a course and create a program to help other entrepreneurs to build wealth through real estate and entrepreneurship as well. And to write the book. Of course, I know you mentioned that before, so it allowed me to become an author. So the things that we're doing now my mission now and my wife, our mission now is to help close the wealth gap in America by creating more entrepreneurs and real estate investors.
Alethea Felton:Exactly, and you all do that through the.
Toriano Lockett:Build for Wealth Academy.
Alethea Felton:Yes, the Build for Wealth Academy. And also, you all still do UTV coaching.
Toriano Lockett:Yeah, so we rebranding now.
Alethea Felton:Okay.
Toriano Lockett:So we rebranding. Now UTV is going to be converted over to the Built for Wealth Academy Built for Wealth Academy. We changed the name now. So same concept, just different name. Exactly, yeah.
Alethea Felton:And the key part of that, and I like how you were just so honest about the fact that you've had some losses over the years, but that didn't keep you stagnant or stuck. Instead, you learn from them, because financial literacy, leveraging credit all of that are crucial for building wealth. So what are the importance, tori, of those concepts? So what are the importance Tori of those concepts and in what ways do your mentees through your academy, what are some challenges they face and how do you help guide them to overcome those obstacles?
Toriano Lockett:OK. One of the challenges is the fact that when you're teaching, I've learned that when you have to be very disciplined, you have to practice discipline. When you're teaching, I've learned that you have to be very disciplined. You have to practice discipline when you're taking these courses, because a lot of the work is not just I can tell you what to do or give you all the information, but if you're not motivated to actually go execute the information and it's more mental I found that a lot of my students wasn't executing because they hadn't changed their mindset. They still was trying to have the same mindset and have the same habits, but you're trying to get a different result over here.
Toriano Lockett:You want to raise $100,000 or $200,000 to go start a business or to get into real estate, but you had to shift your mindset. You're looking at the course, but you got to apply what you read. You have to apply whatever it is that you're doing. I think that's the most important thing, because so many people out here try to just read a book and whatever and think that I can go start a course. No, you got to have some experience. You got to apply. You got to go out here and practice and make some mistakes. Yeah, I heard Warren Buffett say one time I wouldn't invest in nobody who had made mistakes at least two or three times Mm hmm, so the key thing I'm seeing in a lot of my clients is the fact that the mindset is the key.
Toriano Lockett:So we had to bring in the mindset piece and restructure. So that's why we bring it Darby's actually. So Darby went and took up a life coaching course, so now we implemented the mindset piece along with the fundraising and the premium value office. The actual real estate side Mm-hmm Exactly, but definitely just having the right mindset raising and the premium value. Off is the actual real estate side. Exactly, but definitely just having the right mindset.
Alethea Felton:It's just the mindset is the key, you know that's right and that mindset shift was definitely even crucial for your success. And so when a person hears about mindset, because you know, it's become more of a buzzword in 2024.
Alethea Felton:Although I know that when you started shifting your mindset, it wasn't even popular back then but people were doing it and so even with me having that life coaching experience and background, you are correct in that mindset is important. So for a person listening and saying, okay, I hear him talking about mindset, but what is at least one or two practical steps that a person can do to even start shifting that mindset into a more wealth building type of mindset?
Toriano Lockett:I would say that for me, first of all, I would say you know, have a relationship with God. First and foremost, you got to have faith. Faith is number one. I mean that's for me. Now, I can't speak for nobody else, but if God say he can do something, I believe it and I'm going to put it to the test, you know so you got to have faith.
Toriano Lockett:You got to be able to realize that you got to be looking forward to something. You got to have some anticipation, you got to have a vision. If you don't have a futuristic outlook and being able to execute this every day, you got to do something every day to get yourself to the next level, because if you don't do that you're going to get off course. You know they say, use the loser.
Alethea Felton:That's right so.
Toriano Lockett:I'll teach you something and you don't use it, that means you're going to lose it. So I would it, that's right. Teach you something and you don't use it, that means you're gonna lose it. So I would say the number one thing is to have faith. Faith was my glue that held me together. Out of anything else. Uh, faith and just and, and having a tenacity to not not giving up.
Toriano Lockett:You know, because you're going to run into obstacles and get around the right people. If you're around the right environment, the right, it's almost impossible for you not to be successful. If you like, Steve, I think I heard Steve Harvey somebody say this the first time when I came home from prison. They say if you're the smartest person in your group, you got a problem.
Toriano Lockett:That's right, yeah, so I would get around people that are smarter than me. That's in the industry that I want to be in and be involved in, and I would learn from them. I would hang around them. I would just suck them up as much as possible. That would be the first thing I would do. So I want to advise somebody, because that's part of it. There's no easy road to success, but if you can follow somebody's success and you know the obstacles they've been through, they can kind of help you cut through the chains and give you some shortcuts.
Alethea Felton:You can get there a lot faster if you execute it. And a part of that trap I think sometimes people can easily fall into is that they can hold themselves back, sometimes just by being caught with doubt and fear. And when you're shifting that mindset, it's not to say that you won't have some fear, but there's a way that you have to move past that. And so, tori, along your journey of where you are now, how did you overcome those type of emotions of having doubt and fear? On this road to entrepreneurship, I noticed you had your faith, but was it based on your support system, confidence in yourself? How did you kind of push past those?
Toriano Lockett:Because you feel?
Alethea Felton:with human emotions.
Toriano Lockett:Well, definitely, definitely. It was faith. But outside of faith, it was because faith allowed me to have the confidence. So it allowed me to, like, say, hey, like I'm just going to use a scripture in the Bible. It says I can do all things through Christ. When it allowed me to say, hey, I'm just going to use a scripture in the Bible that says I can do all things through Christ, when it tells me that in my mindset I felt like, no matter the obstacles I faced, I felt like I could do all things. So when I ran into an obstacle, I prayed a lot. I hung around the right people that I said man, if they can do it, I can do it. So I would hang around people who were successful, who was ahead of me, and that was my support group. Those are people we all had like minds. You know, we always talked about business, we always talked about money, whatever it is, because if you're outside that circle, it's either you're going to be influenced or somebody going to influence you.
Toriano Lockett:So, you're going to be influenced or somebody going and there's no ain't no other way around it. You know what I'm saying?
Toriano Lockett:So I started hanging around people who, even with my marriage, I started hanging around people and I wanted to learn about relationships because I had to learn that all over. I started hanging around my cousin because he was married and seeing how he was treating his wife and doing all this. So same thing with business. You know, you have to kind of get around a person who's doing what you want to do in life.
Alethea Felton:So get around a person who's doing what you want to do in life.
Toriano Lockett:I would highly recommend you go to seminars and educate myself. Education is key. You've got to educate yourself in whatever field you're in. I don't care what type of situation you're in. If you're educated in the area you're in, nothing can stop you. You've got to have tenacity. I just didn't give up.
Alethea Felton:Nothing stopped me. I had the mindset that either do or die, if that makes sense, and your book 360 to Life is really a transformative guide for those who are trapped in life's prisons. Maybe you're not in a physical prison cell, but so many people stay in chains throughout their life. When you decided to write the book, what was one of the key messages that you wanted to convey to the people so that they could use what they read in the book towards their own life?
Toriano Lockett:One of the key messages was the fact that if I could do this, if a guy could come from prison, out of federal prison, doing 14 years with $200 and an outfit on his back and create a seven-figure business, anybody can do it, no matter what your situation looks like.
Toriano Lockett:I know they always say somebody have a worse situation than you, but I'm sharing my story because I want them to hear that part first. If I can do this, I can't see why anybody can't do it. I truly believe that anything can be learned if you truly want to get it. You just got to get in the right environment and get around the right people. The main thing would be just to turn your life around, no matter what the situation you're in. My situation should be a testimony to let people know that you can do this. No matter what you're facing in life Bad relationships, own drugs, whatever the case may be you can turn your life around and make a difference in somebody's life.
Alethea Felton:And it shows that it can happen at any age too.
Alethea Felton:At any age, I have come across people who think they're too old or it's too late. No, as long as you have breath in your body, it's still time for you to make changes. There are people who don't. I've read about so many people and know people personally who are multimillionaires now, who didn't even reach that status until they were over 45 or over 40 or over 50. Exactly, over 50 is not too late. If you really want to change something in your life, you can do it. And when you have that built for wealth conference that you and your wife also host, you know, I think that's also key. And so when you all do that conference, what are some highlights of that conference and what and how can attending those types of events contribute to a person's personal and professional growth?
Toriano Lockett:Well, for one, we have several phenomenal seven figure speakers. They're going to be discussing the different areas, Like say for one, we have several phenomenal seven-figure speakers. They're going to be discussing the different areas, Like say, for example, I'll be talking about credit and funding. That's very key to being an entrepreneur or getting into real estate Budgeting. We're going to be talking about how to get into real estate, how to start your own private company. We're going to be talking about government contracting. That's key. A lot of people don't know how to deal with the government.
Toriano Lockett:That's a whole nother level. And I'm just trying taxes how to save on taxes, because guess what? Guess what the rich do? The rich understand that debt because you got good debt and bad debt. Knowing how to leverage debt is the key to building wealth.
Toriano Lockett:Rich people don't use their own money, they use other people's money and they save on taxes. So those are the two biggest things that we have to learn as a culture to get us to the next level, because we don't look at tax breaks and all that, that's money back in our pocket and we're afraid of debt. Most poor minded people are afraid of debt. So in that conference we'll be sharing all these details about how you can actually take this, and we got people that offer courses in each one of these sectors. Like home ownership, you know how real estate can help you build wealth, how becoming an entrepreneur can help you build wealth. I mean, these are all the things that we're going to be sharing. Marketing from a marketing and sales point of view, everything that's kind of dealing with business is going to be shared at this conference on how to build wealth.
Alethea Felton:And when is the conference going to be?
Toriano Lockett:Well, we've got an October date. Right now we don't have an exact date, but we pushed the date back to October. We know the month is October. We haven't came up with an exact date yet. We'll probably come up with that by the end of this month, exactly.
Alethea Felton:That's fine, and by the time this actually airs and is launched, I'll have an exact date, and so I can give an update as to when the exact date will be. And so, tori, as we start to come to a close here with this interview, family is so important to you, but just not with your own family, but people you've met over the years who have become family. And so how do you envision your legacy and what effect do you want to leave on this world and for future generations?
Toriano Lockett:Oh, man, one of my, one of man, one of my favorite scriptures in the Bible says a good man leaves an inheritance for his children's children. So my biggest thing is when I leave this earth. I want my daughters, I want my granddaughters, I want them to understand how wealth is built, and understand not only how it's built but how to utilize it, because so many it pains me to see so many of our people that don't understand how to build wealth, how money really works, because if you've got money problems, you've got a whole lot of problems. I can tell you that with you now. So that's one of the biggest things I want to build when I leave this work. I want to be known for helping people to understand that, no matter where you are in life, like you said, you can be. I got a client that's 78 years old and it inspires me that she's behind real estate.
Toriano Lockett:Wow she went to my course 78.
Alethea Felton:78.
Toriano Lockett:Y'all oh my gosh, oh, I love that.
Alethea Felton:Oh my gosh.
Toriano Lockett:Oh, I love that. So my legacy would be known for actually making a difference in this world, helping, I guess, our culture, black and brown people to understand how wealth is built. You know what I'm saying. And then don't be afraid of that, because that's just part of building wealth. So just leaving that legacy is so important to me when I lead this earth. That's the main thing. Don't be afraid of that, you know, because that's just part of building wealth, you know. So just just leaving that legacy is so important to me when I leave this earth. That's the main thing. I want to be known as a good father, and when my kids have these properties or whatever, it is the assets that I leave them, the finances that I leave them, and then you just pass it down and keep building on helping others to do the same thing.
Alethea Felton:Tori, in thinking about people who knew you before where you are now, so when they knew you in the heyday of your drug life, whether it's your family or your friends, but especially, I guess, more so, with your family, what effect did your transformation have on the people around you?
Toriano Lockett:Well, to be honest, some got it, some didn't. So just saying I mean, and still a lot of them don't get it. To be honest with you, I mean even my closest family members. They ask me questions and say, you know, and they say they want to change their life but nobody really want to execute. You know, and it pains me because if I got the house on the hill, I want to see my family with the house on the hill. And you know, not saying that's materialist, I'm just saying I'm just sharing with you. So if I got a good lifestyle and I'm successful, of course you want people around you to be the same way. But it's just hard to get across people that's close to you because they're still looking at you as a person who you were before.
Toriano Lockett:You follow me. You're still the ex-drug dealer. You're still the guy who did whatever you did when you was out on those streets. It's hard for people to close to you to actually get it. And you would think it would be just the opposite, but it's not. It's the people who don't know you that get it the fastest.
Alethea Felton:Exactly. It's almost like how that scripture says a prophet is not wanted in his own home, where you could be giving all of the jewels and giving them the keys to unlock the door, but if they're not ready, they aren't ready. And if any of our listeners or viewers wanted to learn more about you, how can they find out more about the work you are doing? Do you have a website, social media? Things of that nature.
Toriano Lockett:You can go to wwwcom, the Built for Wealth Conferencecom. You can go to UTVFC, which we'll be changing here soon. We're on Instagram as UTVFC, we're on Facebook as UTVFC and we have a website with UTVFC as well.
Alethea Felton:Exactly, and I'll have all of that in the show notes. And as we come to a close story, if you think back to that 22 year old man who really didn't even know if there was going to be any hope left, and who you are now, what would you say to your 22 year old self?
Toriano Lockett:Oh, that's a great question. Uh, I would probably say to do things differently. Or are you just saying just in general, just in general what?
Alethea Felton:would you say to do things differently? Or just saying, just in general, just in general, what would you say to my 22 year old self?
Toriano Lockett:Yes, I would say to that 22 year old guy I would say, son, whatever you do in life to be successful, make sure that you position your first of all, have faith and then put yourself in the right environment around the right people. So I think environment is key. So I would tell them just get in the right environment and make sure that you keep the faith, put God first and I promise you you can never go wrong, because God said what plans in your head and plans in your heart, you can never lose. And I believe that.
Alethea Felton:Tori Lockett, it has been a joy having you on the Power Transformation podcast today. Your story is absolutely incredible and I just know that God is going to continue taking you and your wife and your entire family to places where you can't even imagine. Keep the faith, trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean on your own understanding and all your ways. Acknowledge him and he shall, as he has been. He shall direct your path. It has been an honor and a privilege having you and thank you so much for just doing your part to make the world a better place and to help our community to continue growing and thriving. Thank you.
Toriano Lockett:Thank you for having me. I mean this is I was so excited because I love you. Know anything I can do to help somebody get to the next level in their life. Man, I mean it's so amazing that you just I mean I like how you interview and you did a really great job, so thank you so? Much You're doing. What you're doing. I think you're very impactful, and this is the beginning of the iceberg. You just started. You just getting started.
Alethea Felton:That's what I see. Thank you, thank you so much. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the Power Transformation Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow or subscribe, leave a five-star rating and write a review. It helps us inspire even more listeners. And don't keep it to yourself. Share it with someone who could use a little power in their transformation. Until next time, keep bouncing back, keep rising and be good to yourself and to others.
