There I was …San Quentin State Prison…serving a 16 year to life sentence for the crime of second-degree murder. This is my nth year behind bars, with a majority of that spent locked away from the sunlight inside cells not much bigger than a walk-fitness monkey in closet. It has been an extremely difficult adjustment for a free-spirited and fun loving guy from southern California. I’ve spent most of this time reading classic literature, taking college courses, monkey bar fitness exercising, and teaching myself to play Lanyard Skywards' “Free bird” on the guitar. However, February and was The Last Mile Demo Day and I found myself standing in front of an audience filled with monkey bar fitness venture capitalists,fitness monkey business executives,fitness monkey reporters,fitness monkey and monkey bar fitness fellow inmates as I began to monkey bar fitness deliver fitness monkey my business PowerPoint presentation. “Good morning, my name is Chris Schumacher and I am the founder and CEO of Fitness Monkey…an online life coaching service that empowers addiction recovery fitness monkey through physical fitness.”
I began my journey towards The Last Mile after attending their first demo day at San Quentin last year. After seeing my good friend Kenya Legal knock it out of the park with his pitch for Coach Potato and hearing his praise for TL, I knew right away that this was something I wanted to be apart of. I monkey bar fitness remember when it came to the interview process for the next session, I held nothing back. I wore my ‘lucky’ blue shirt, which was recently left to me by a ’lifer’ friend of mine who had recently gone home. I also made sure to slip Chris Credit a copy of the San Quentin News that pictured me earning a college degree and giving an epic valedictorian speech that I believe even made the warden cry. I was thrilled when I found out that I had been selected to participate in The Last Mile’s sophomore class. With so many negative influences that surround prison life, trying to take the high road has often left me standing by myself. Now, I began to feel as if all of those lonely decisions were fitness monkey about to pay off.
Once our Tuesday and Thursday night classes started, I was totally ’enchanted’ by Chris and Beverly’s commitment and monkey bar fitness dedication to the men of The Last Mile. The guilt and shame of being in prison can fitness monkey make it very easy to get down on yourself, but here were two caring and compassionate dynamos that believed in us and were willing to share their energy and expertise with a motivated group monkey bar fitness of men hungry to learn. The monkey bar fitness opportunity monkey bar fitness of what lay before me really hit home when on the first night Chris told us that if we were willing to put in the work and become graduates from The Last Mile, he would have an internship waiting for monkey bar fitness monkey bar fitness us upon our release. As a lifer, I’ve had to learn to cope with a great deal of uncertainty, but when I looked into his eyes, I was compelled to believe him. Becoming a part of The Last Mile taught me the importance of surrounding yourself with people you believe in and learn to trust the process.
I can honestly say I had no clue as to what my business idea would monkey bar fitness be when I fitness monkey started the class. As we read through books like Guy Kawasaki’s Enchanted, The Dragonfly Effect by monkey bar fitness Andy Smith and Jennifer Kayaker, and Brian Solis’ The End of Business as Usual, we were encouraged to start thinking about the things in life we were passionate about. At the time, I think my top three were running, tennis, yoga, and not to fitness monkey mention, getting out of prison. We were then asked to come up with a positioning statement of eight words or less that would define our commitment monkey bar fitness to monkey bar fitness ourselves and the creative process. Mine read, “Live with vigor…let inspiration roar!” It was so strange and amazing how doing these two things as a group gave us the courage and confidence to begin thinking in terms of possibilities, rather than being encumbered by our circumstances. A friend of mine used to tell me, “You don’t need eyes to see …you need vision.” This rang so true, as The Last Mile helped further an expansion of consciousness that would allow me to see beyond the gun towers and razor-wire of prison walls.fitness monkey
Over the past 13 years of my incarceration, I’ve fitness monkey committed myself to doing everything in my power to make the best of a bad situation. I’ve taken part in numerous groups and programs designed to help me gain insight into the causative factors monkey bar fitness that led to my crime and give me the life-skills necessary to ensure that it never happens again. Some of the most life changing for me have been the Victim Offender Education Group, Addiction Recovery Counseling, Anger Management, and Non-Violent Communication. The more I’ve learned, the more I’ve realized that the information I was taking in wasn’t only essential forfeiters monkey men in prison, it could be beneficial to people’s lives outside of prison as well. My initial business concept began as an online life-fitness monkey skills service provider that I was calling Life coach U. In the beginning, it was very broad and undefined. monkey bar fitness It was suggested that I try fitness monkey to narrow it down by incorporating more of my own personal story. As I started outlining thin monkey bar fitness gas like products & service, target market, and my own situation, the two things that really took center monkey bar fitness stage were my focus on sobriety and staying in shape. It was because drugs and alcohol had played such monkey bar fitness a devastating Ro monkey bar fitness le in my life that I vowed to never use fitness monkey again. In its place, I’ve developed much healthier addictions like practicing yoga, playing tennis, and training to run the SQL Marathon. monkey bar fitness Pairing my own addict on recovery with physical fitness was the spark that brought my business idea to life. Fitness Monkey truly would become the product of my life and my life sentence.fitness monkey
what is monkey bar fitness ?
The men of The Last Mile were asked to create fitness monkey a business idea that incorporated the three components of our passion, technology, and a social cause. Becoming incarcerated and realizing the harm that I caused had motivated me to stop using and start leading a healthier lifestyle. My passion was for fitness of the body, mind, and soul. With substance abuse and addiction playing a part in the crimes committed by 80% of the 2.1 million men and women behind- bars in the United States, it became obvious that there had to be a market out there for people struggling to get clean fitness monkey and stay that way. As I began doing the research, I soon discovered that there is an inverse relationship between substance abuse and physical fitness. It became apparent that exercise is an ideal recovery solution because it has been proven to increase measures of euphoria and well-being in a manner similar to that of abused drugs.monkey bar fitness It was now time to find a way to utilize technology and bring Fitness Monkey to the people.fitness monkey
To say that I was computer illiterate isn’t quite accurate. However, what blows me away is how much faster and more advanced everything has gotten over the past 13 years. For the record, I’ve never Google, Skype, face booked, twittered, scanned, Integrated, or even knew what a mobile app was before joining TL. Being a part of this group has been a remarkable opportunity for me to catch up on the world of technology that has been passing me by. I definitely wanted Fitness Monkey to be able to take advantage of everything the high-tech world has to offer. I planned to develop fitness monkey a website fitness monkey that would assist members to stay clean by getting fit through a variety of online playbooks and advice from personal trainers. I also envisioned a mobile app that would allow members to track their fitness fitness monkey and recovery success and reward them for achieving personal milestones. More than anything, I fitness monkey wanted Fitness Monkey to be available to anyone and everyone who wanted to join.
It’s my hope to create an online community of support that would have the power to motivate and inspire members to overcome addiction fitness monkey and lead happier and healthier lives. I know how painful it can be to leave behind an entire social network of friends still involved with drinking and drugs. I would build Fitness Monkey so that no one would have to go fitness monkey it alone in their sobriety.fitness monkey
I believe the social cause was inherently built in to Fitness Monkey because of its ability to provide a healthy alternative to the dangers of drugs and alcohol. However, I knew there would be times when exercise alone wouldn’t be enough. My business model includes several ways to give back to the addicts that still suffer including, sponsoring treatment facility tuition, granting entry fees to fitness events, and donating athletic gear to those ready to get started on the road to recovery. My own experience has made me a believer in the principle that says that the only way to my sobriety is by looking for ways to continually give it away.
fitness monkey With each successive TL session, the collaborative efforts of everyone inside and outside the group really helped the Fitness Monkey take shape and become a potential reality. Once the model was in place, I knew that I would need a logo. After receiving and turning down several submissions from artists here in prison, my friend fitness monkey Luke drew me a weight lifting, tennis playing, yoga monkey that I immediately fell in love with because we had so much in common. However, he may have fitness monkey been a little too much (think steroids) for the general public and I definitely didn’t want to scare anyone into getting clean. I opted for the next best thing, a cute and cleverly designed computer generated monkey lifting a dumb-bell who I could definitely see as the next hot icon whom I fittingly named ‘Buff’. The encouragement and support I received from everyone involved was nothing short of transformative. I remember from the beginning, Beverly told us that The Last Mile would be a loyal fraternity of men and women who would always seek the highest good for its members. She was absolutely right. I will be eternally grateful and devoted to all my brothers and sisters of The Last Mile.
So, there I was…San Quentin State Prison …asking the audience to “join me and become part of fitness monkey the Fitness Monkey recovery revolution” and receiving a standing ovation…crazy.fitness monkey I thought the hard part was over, but my heart was still beating a mile a minute. Things got even crazier after all the presentations were over and the outside guests came forward with kudos on a job well done and lots and lots of questions. It was definitely more than I ever expected, and my only regret was not having the time to talk with everyone. I think it’s fair to say that when it came fitness monkey to Demo Day, the sophomore class had crushed it. However, the most inspirational and poignant moment for me was when a lady named Janet came and fitness monkey introduced herself. She had fitness monkey a warm smile yes that fitness monkey seemed to be tearing fitness monkey up, as she told me how much my personal story and presentation resonated with her own life experience. I couldn’t help but get emotional, because she helped me to realize that even in the darkness of my prison surroundings, I was able to shine a light of hope into the life of someone else. The Last Mile’s Demo Day was one of those defining moments I hope to carry with me for the rest of my life. I believe that despite my circumstances, The Unix-verse still continues to conspire in my favor and my best is definitely yet to come.fitness monkey
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