How Jeremiah Cook Plans to Build Sober Living Homes and Help People Rebuild Their Lives

Jeremiah Cook: My background, I can’t change my background. I can only proceed for my future to live. That’s what I think positive and I manifest for a better tomorrow, man. I don’t think about yesterday, man. I can’t change what happened yesterday. You know what I’m saying? So why they want to hold a background on me and not let me live somewhere or work somewhere, man. You’re gonna lock somebody up for years and then tell them they can’t live nowhere or get a job, it don’t make no sense, man. And therefore, that’s why I’m putting out, man. I’m about to help people, brother.

Quentin Edmonds: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros Podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds, and I am excited. I am excited to be here today. I have a wonderful, fantastic guest. I cannot wait for you to hear his story. And you guys know if you’ve been following me, you know this is what the highlight of what I do is when I get to hear other people’s stories, other people’s experience. That way we can take the lessons from their experience and apply it to what we’re doing. So that’s what we’re gonna do today. And I love it at the top. You know, I take notes, I’ve been talking to this gentleman, and at the very top, one of the things he said, he wants to invest in helping people. That’s his mindset. He wanna build sober living homes, maybe even some co-living homes. He wanna be able to help out women who have dealt with domestic abuse. And so his mindset is really to help people. So I am so excited for us to learn today from Mr. Jeremiah Cook. Mr. Jeremiah, how you doing today, sir?

Jeremiah Cook: Blessed, brother. Blessed by the best.

Quentin Edmonds: Come on, man. And you know it. Absolutely. You talking that talk already. I love that, man. You know, my faith is very important to me. And so I’m gonna say this. I said it before, I’ll probably say it again. Thank you for your time. I’m so glad you’re here. And Jeremiah, I’m the type sir. I like to dive right in. So I would love for you to tell people what’s your main focus these days. If you don’t mind, give us a little origin story, kind of how you got into the place where you are, how you know different things became your passion. And then tell them where you are in the world because people love to know that too. So Jeremiah, my friend, you have the floor, sir.

Jeremiah Cook: Sir, a little bit about me, man. I’m really big into sobriety. I battled addiction for many years, brother. I was in the dark. I was selling drugs, sold cocaine, and then I got involved in the crystal meth. I did crystal meth every day for 11 years, man. I have a powerful mind. I seen it ruin people’s lives. I seen what it did. I would tell people, you know what I mean? Hey man, you need to stop doing this. You need to stop what you’re doing. I was running from the cops.

And then on July the 19th of 2018, I was hit. I was hit on my motorcycle. I went and picked up a half ounce of crystal meth, man, and I got hit on my motorcycle at a red light. A woman hit me at a red light on my motorcycle. After she hit me, man, I was laid on the ground. It felt like somebody had a blowtorch on my foot. There was 26 cops there. You know what I mean? I think they were there for a reason. They put me in the ambulance. So this is where I feel like my Fourth Amendment right was violated. The EMT had found the drugs on me in the ambulance in my boot. They got me to the hospital. I was completely conscious, man, the whole time. I heard them, the EMT gave it to the police at the hospital.

When I got in the hospital, I heard them say injecting with ketamine. They inject me with ketamine, and I seen two gray aliens in lab coats above me, and the last thing out of my mouth was, what are y’all doing to me? Okay. I wake up in the hospital. This is at Ben Taub with college students. I don’t ever recommend going to a hospital where there’s college students eager to learn. But if that’s where you end up, that’s where you end up. You know what I mean? At least they learn something from me. So when I wake up in the hospital, this little young doctor comes in and he says, how you doing today, Mr. Cook? And I was, man, I’ve been a lot better. I looked down, they cut my foot off. You know what I mean? He goes, hey, if you didn’t notice, we cut your right foot off. He goes, we had to scrape the rocks off your liver. We got your liver back in your body, but we had to cut out three feet of your intestines. And I said, well, great, man. Give me a plunger and some duct tape, and I’ll get out of here right now.

And so check this out. They told me that I healed faster than anybody they had ever seen in that hospital. I was in there July the 19th, July the 20th. I was out by August the 8th. I got a prosthetic. My prosthetist told me he had never seen anybody get a prosthetic as fast as me. Went to physical therapy, man. My mind is very powerful, man. Your mind, people don’t realize how powerful your mind is, man. Your thoughts are powerful and your words are powerful. And when you break that down, man, you can really realize how powerful of a human being you are in your reality, man, when you know how to use your thoughts and your words. And so my physical therapist told me, he says, hey man, there’s people been coming in here a year that can’t do what you’re doing. And I said, man, their mind’s not right, man. If you want to sit around and be depressed and hate yourself and be sad, man, you’re not gonna ever proceed in life. You know what I’m saying, man? You’ve got to think positive, be positive, and do positive.

So check this out, man. Due to COVID, I didn’t go to court till 2021. I did all my probation, man. The cops have always harassed me, man. I don’t know if it’s just because of the lifestyle I lived or what, but man, they’ve always harassed me. That’s why I don’t like the law society. So anyway, I did all my probation. I got transferred to Port Arthur, Texas. I did all my probation, but I went to meet this girl and I know she had set me up. I was still battling with addiction. I got pulled over. They found synthetic urine in my truck and arrested me for synthetic urine, man. They charged me with providing a false positive on a urinalysis with a falsification device. I didn’t even do that, man. So they violated my probation. I basically went on the run, man. I went up to Tennessee. My parents live in Tennessee. I was at a campground, man. The cop showed up. They tackled me on the ground. I got flown back to Harris County, Texas on an airplane, man. First class on an airplane. I was eating cracked peppered almonds and drinking coffee and I was handcuffed under a windbreaker. They flew me back to Harris County, Texas. Long story short, I ended up doing 17 months in county jail. They kept wanting to put me in prison. I filed a motion for discovery to see the video because the attorney told me they had a video of me having the meth in an Altoid can, but I did not. It was in my sock. And so therefore I never got to see the video. When I filed the motion for discovery, I did 17 months. And then after that, they put me in a mental institution, man, for five months.

But in the mental institution, man, it helped me to understand, because they told me I had PTSD. You know what I mean? They labeled me, whatever you want to label me, man. I know who I am. But so they labeled me with PTSD. But in the mental institution, I don’t ever recommend anybody going to that place. Stay away from both. But it helped me to understand people’s thoughts, maybe why people act the same way they do. And then on the other end of that, I felt like it was God showing me what might be wrong, to help other people’s mental illness, man. And it’s really in a way gonna help me with my journey of what I’m gonna do, because it helped me to see things, evaluate why people might think like this, you know what I mean, man, like blaming others, bipolar, you know what I mean, brother? I’m gonna use what I learned in that mental institution towards my sober living.

Quentin Edmonds: Absolutely. And you literally brought it up because I was gonna say, so this journey helps me fill in the blanks, because now you’re building a business and one of the things you want to focus on is sober living. So tell me a little bit about the plan when it comes to sober living.

Jeremiah Cook: And in there, I got to be the president of NA. I’ve been to AA, man, but I feel like alcohol is a drug, man. I haven’t drank in many years. I started doing crystal meth and it stopped me from drinking. So therefore, I don’t feel comfortable calling myself an alcoholic. But like alcohol is a drug. I was president of NA. I’m gonna start NA. I’ve already got that set up to where I can set it up. I just have to find the location to do NA. I’m gonna set up an NA chapter.

Quentin Edmonds: Inside the sober living? Is that what you’re saying?

Jeremiah Cook: Yes, I’m gonna do it. I’m gonna incorporate inside the sober living the NA. I just gotta pay ten dollars and I gotta get the books. And I’ve already set all that up. But here’s really what I wanna get at and tell people, man. Like this world’s crazy, brother. It really is, man. And like, so what they did at the mental institution, they were gonna transfer me to my parents’ house. My father was a street preacher, man. He preached on the streets, but he’s got Parkinson’s, he’s losing his mind, man. And I love the Heavenly Father, and I’m not into religion anymore, man. I kind of study what Christ consciousness is, or Christos, the Christ oil. It’s a fluid that runs down your spinal cord, man, and then it comes to you every month. But in my journey, man, my dad told the probation department that he had guns, right? So therefore, I could not stay at my parents’ house because they told them they had firearms and they wanted them locked up in a gun safe. Well, my dad tells them that he’s gonna put them in a closet and they said that’s not good enough. So I wasn’t allowed to stay at my own family’s house, which they have a Second Amendment right, you know what I mean, to bear arms, man. That’s their rights. And so I wasn’t allowed at my own family’s house because of a firearm situation. So man, I was homeless, man. And I went up to Nashville. I stayed in Nashville and I had the probation department call me from Houston and they were like, Mr. Cook, where are you at? I said, I’m where God wants me to be. And then she goes, well, you need to see a judge. I said, well, I asked to see a judge. I filed a motion for discovery to see the video. Y’all never granted that motion. You know what I mean? And she goes, well, you need to get back to Houston. I said, well, can you send me some money? Can you get me a bus? Well, we can’t do that. Well, I’m homeless and broke. I don’t know how y’all expect me to get back there. You know what I mean, man? It’s just the justice system, brother. They don’t even know what they’re doing anymore, man. And it’s really sad.

On this journey, man, is where I’m getting at, brother. I separated myself from the world. I lived out in nature, man, and I found myself, brother. And like I say, when a man can find his true self, man, you can operate totally different in the world, man, because you know who you are, what you like, where you want to go, what you want to do. And I’ve suffered, man. I lived in the dark, you know what I mean, brother. But now I realize, brother, I got a light. I’ve always had a light, you know what I mean? I’m about to let that light shine.

Quentin Edmonds: Well, that’s exactly what I want you to do. I want you to let the light shine. And listen, so people come here, they’re entrepreneurs, they’re business owners and aspiring business owners. So tell me about how is your journey, how is that going to relate to the business that you’re building? Give me some practical steps on how this thing is gonna relate to the business.

Jeremiah Cook: That’s what I’m talking about. Like everything, man, everything has been coming into play, man. I was in Tennessee, man, and I was struggling. And my conscience, I have a really, really close friend. I’ve known him for a long time, and he’s like my brother. And my conscience was just telling me, get out of Tennessee, man. I was thrown in jail twice over there for driving without a plastic card. It’s ridiculous, man. You got someone in office that might be on the Epstein list, but you got people out here driving around with no driver’s license getting thrown in jail, man. But so anyway, I still have to go to court in Tennessee, but my conscience would tell me, man, get out of Tennessee, get out of Tennessee. So I got to Denver, right? And it’s like everything’s just falling into place, man. I applied for my business license. I got my business license. And I’m gonna give a shout-out. My business is A Guy With One Foot LLC. Put that down. Just remember a guy with one foot, he’ll help you out. He’ll get your foot in the door to sobriety.

And so I went down to Convict Coffee, man. I love coffee. I went down to Convict Coffee. The gentleman that runs Convict Coffee down the street, he had told me that he’s involved with sober livings, that he lets the people work, because felons can’t get jobs, man. You know what I’m saying? Because of this system. And therefore he works with sober livings and he helps them out with the Convict Coffee. Because when you’re a felon, man, you can’t get a job nowhere, you can’t live nowhere. And that’s another reason I’m pursuing this, man, because I feel like felons should be a protected class, brother. You see what I’m saying? I don’t judge nobody, but you have these LGBTQ people, you know what I mean? But why can’t a felon be a protected class where you can’t mess with me, man? You know what I mean? And let us go do whatever we need to do because man, my background, I can’t change my background. I can only proceed for my future to live. That’s what I think positive and I manifest for a better tomorrow, man. I don’t think about yesterday, man. I can’t change what happened yesterday. You know what I’m saying? So why they want to hold a background on me and not let me live somewhere or work somewhere, man. You’re gonna lock somebody up for years and then tell them they can’t live nowhere or get a job, it don’t make no sense, man. And therefore, that’s why I’m putting out, man. I’m about to help people, brother. And I’m gonna use the government’s money, the state’s money to fund all this. And I’m also working on a nonprofit. I’m gonna set up a nonprofit in a 508(c)(1)(A), man. That way the fraud IRS can’t touch that. I’ve been educating myself a lot, man, on trust, equity, and all that. And I plan on teaching people this, man, how to operate in the private. You know what I’m saying? Set up private trust. Set you up a nonprofit. Start helping people, man. You know what I’m saying, man? And I feel like God put us here to love one another, man, and to help one another. Not pay for everything. You know what I mean?

Quentin Edmonds: I know you talk about helping people. If someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, collaborate with you, how can they get in contact with you?

Jeremiah Cook: Hit me up, man. I got a YouTube channel. I haven’t put much on there, man. I’m waiting on my business license, man. That’s why I haven’t started, but this is a blessing because I’m kind of putting myself out there. You can hit me up. I got a Facebook, man, Jeremiah Cook on Facebook. You’ll definitely know my profile, man. You’ll know my profile picture. Then A Guy With One Foot LLC. Instagram is stublove719. And then I got, like I say, man, my YouTube channel is PLA, Peg Leg Anonymous. Bro, I do stand-up comedy, man. I did it twice in Nashville. I’m about to start doing it here, man. I’m not in my right zone right now, man, just to transition over here. But I’m really a comedian, man. I’ve been making people laugh my whole life. Everybody’s been telling me, man, you need to do stand-up comedy. You know what I’m saying? So like my YouTube channel is PLA, Peg Leg Anonymous. You can reach me on there. I’m gonna start posting videos, man. I’m just getting started and man, this is such a blessing that you’re allowing me to speak and just get out there, you know what I’m saying, bro, on the air. And just kind of let people know where I’m going, where I’m proceeding, or what I’m about to do, man.

Quentin Edmonds: Well, Jeremiah, man, thank you so much for coming on. Listen, everyone, Jeremiah, his information is in the show notes. Please get in contact with him, reach out to him. But definitely make sure you are subscribed here because I promise you we’re going to continue to bring up amazing people, just like Jeremiah Cook. So, sir, I gotta say thank you again, man, for coming on, sharing your story. And listen, everyone else, I want y’all to have a fantastic day.