Editor’s Note: I was introduced to Joe Buckner through Elliott Clark while searching for speakers for EE’s November 2021 retreat to Denver. Elliott told me I had to get Joe to speak. He added: “if you want to know why, hang up the phone right now and watch this video.” 

I didn’t need any more convincing. Later, when I called Joe, he said: "What you gotta understand is the lululemon video was based on my life in the early 2000s. Yes, that is part of my story. But it’s  2021. There's been a lot of developments since.”

I responded, “Great. I want you to use your time with us to share the part of your story that is still untold.”

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. You can listen to the full conversation here.

The way I think of the world is pretty simple. I try to leave every single person in a better place than I found them. It sounds simple. And it is.​

On Joe's Origin Story.

Cornelius McGrath
Who the hell is Joe Buckner? And how does he think about the world?

Joe Buckner
That's a fantastic question. Joe Buckner is a father, a grandfather, a son, a brother, a phenomenal friend protector, a vision and idea giant. The way I think of the world is pretty simple. I try to leave every single person in a better place than I found them. It sounds simple. And it is.​

Where did you learn to think like that?

From a lifetime of messing up and not always moving with the world's best interest in mind. I used to just move with Joe's best interest in mind but soon realised that's not exactly a way to be a good part of the community of the world. So, yeah, the relationship with Lululemon really helped. I spent three and a half years there, and I grew a lot during that time.

Can you please tell the story behind that amazing piece of content? I mean, it is truly unbelievable. It's one of those pieces of content that makes you stop and go, "holy sh*t, this is a hell of a story." How did that come about, Joe? And for those that haven't seen it, what is the story itself?

The story is about a walk I used to take every day. When I came home from prison, I used to walk 14 miles every single day between two $7 an hour jobs. It's just a story of fighting. It's a story of fighting for your freedom. It's a story of fighting not to be a statistic in a country with a 75% recidivism rate. It's a story of fighting not to be a stereotype. 

The film happened because I'm a manifesting machine. We filmed it in December 2018. But, in December 2016, I posted on Facebook: "does anyone in here know how to make documentaries? I want to make a film about this walk I used to take every day when I got out of prison." 

Obviously, nobody on my Facebook was a filmmaker. So that didn't work out. A year later, in December 2017, I was in Santa Monica, California, with my friend Tony Jeffries. I said to the kid that was there doing the video, "Hey, do you know how to make films? Cause I have a cool idea. And I think it would be rad" He's like, "yeah, yeah, yeah. That would be cool." You know, he's LA cool. I'm Colorado, not cool. 

Anyway, before becoming a lululemon ambassador, there's a vetting process that goes on. A lot of people don't know that, and you don't know you're being vetted. But you are being vetted. I was asked to get seven lululemon store managers into one of my classes. My gym blew up pretty fast, and the classes sold out every day. Regardless, I said, "absolutely whatever you need." 

In that class was a woman named Ashley Scarpelli. She was a store manager at the time. None of us knew that she was going to be on the men's team for Pacific Northwest for Lululemon a year later. She became head of the men's community for lululemon. None of us knew that lululemon would be trying to find a way to speak to their male audience in a more sincere, inclusive way. And none of us knew that Lululemon was going to partner with Huckberry and that Huckberry had just partnered with Breakwater studios. So it was the perfect storm. 

Huckberry and lululemon got together and said, "Hey, we're going to do this project. We're going to make it a film." Ashley specifically said: "if you wanna do it in Colorado, there's only one person. And it's Joe Buckner." The Huckberry guys were like, "why, why Joe Buckner?" She said: "I'll show you." She sent them some podcast stuff, some articles. When the Breakwater guys saw it, they said, "we have to be the people to tell this guy's story. We wanna be the ones." 

So I just thought we were doing a photoshoot when I jumped on the Zoom call. Instead, I found out they were making the film that I had asked two years prior if someone could help me make. 

So I'll just openly admit that I cried. It was just a really cool opportunity. I didn't want to tell the story of "oh, I'm this triumphant person who walked 14 miles a day." No, no, no. I wanted to tell the story so someone about to give up can say, "okay, I got a bit more fight left in me." You know that couple that's at home getting ready to call it quits. They might find one more reason to fight for what they used to love. That person that looks in the mirror and doesn't see the person that they're used to seeing and feels like just calling it a day can watch that video and go, "I can do it. I can do this." 

So that's the story of how it came about. And that's why it was important for me to tell that story. I got sent to prison for selling drugs in a country where 75 of every 100 people go back to prison within three years. I was bound, determined, never to go back.

When you were six years old, you started boxing, but you didn't get into fighting as a retaliatory measure. Why did you get into boxing? Why is it special to you?

My uncle was a two time Marine golden glove boxing champion. And my other uncle was a state champion wrestler. And we come from a family of people that fight. I mean, when I was a kid, I remember watching my uncle fight people in the street. So fighting is just something that all of us were taught to do. But for me, one of the things I teach young people is I've been boxing since I was a child, but it didn't make me a badass. It made me a guy that was confident and I was always confident that, no matter how loud you get or how huffy and puffy you get, I can handle this situation. So I'm never in fight or flight. I'm just always chilling.

Have you ever watched a professional boxing match? You don't see tense, stressed-out people in the ring. You see guys who are relaxed, they're bouncing around on their toes. Because they know what to do. They're confident in their skillset. So boxing gave me confidence. So even when I went to prison, I never once had another man approach me like, "Hey, I'm gonna test you." I also don't carry myself with this bravado, like I'm some badass dude. You see me hugging people. Like that's how I move through the world. There's some people that just show up with violence, but they don't direct it at me. So yeah. Yeah. I just, it was never a thing.

What's something nobody knows about you?

I don't think a lot of people know that I'm biracial. My mother's from Mexico. Nobody's going to think that when I'm walking down the street. Spanish was my first language. So when I was a little kid, my parents were very young. My dad was 16. My mom was 18. My grandparents raised me for the first four years of my life. I was just a little jet black kid that could only speak Spanish. I don't think I share enough about that, so I think you just inspired me to start sharing more about that.

I wasn't nervous about being homeless. I knew I'd figure it out. Everything is temporary to me. Any hardship is temporary. Even when I went to prison, I said, "okay, they can keep me five years, but that's not forever."

On Life After Prison.

What's happened since?

I was released from prison in 2006 and came home and got to work. I got to work on not being a statistic, not being another person in and out of prison. And I started to piece my life back together. I got the two $7/hr jobs. For many people, they might be like, 'oh, you know, $7/hr ' All I needed was an opportunity. I just needed people to see that this human is different. And even I used to tell people all the time, "I don't care. Taco bell gave me a job. That's fine. I'm taking your order today. In two months, I'm running the place. I promise." And that's what happened at the bagel shop within two months. They were like: "there's no way this guy can be your manager. Are you willing to be the general manager?"

I was like, "Yeah, I was just waiting for you to ask." I knew I was built for that. I've changed. Now, I'm a different animal. I had those opportunities. And from those opportunities, I just knew I had to show up as my best self every day. And sure enough, I would get job offers all the time. But I was a recently released convicted drug felon. So I wasn't allowed to have a driver's license. So I couldn't do some of the jobs. Some of them, I wasn't going to pass the background check, but I didn't care. I was just biding my time because I knew all of that was temporary. And I knew I was going to get an opportunity. And then, about a year later, I got a job with a guy painting. So that put me in a slightly different, higher position to earn.

Then I got a job at Aarons, and I loved it. It's the largest rental company in the world. And I quickly advanced. It took me three weeks to go from the guy making coffee to the sales manager, took me another four and a half months to go from sales manager to the general manager. And then, you know, a year and a half later, I was on the regional staff. But when I first applied for the job, the current regional manager told the GM, "if you hire that guy, I'll fire you. You cannot hire someone fresh out of prison." Now, that regional is one of my best friends, but I persisted. I showed up every day for three weeks. I was like, "you're going to give me a job. You want to give me a job. I knew you get a lot of applications, but you want this person to work here."

And then, after I got there, I set a bunch of sales records for the company, for the franchise. I just needed a chance. But in that time, I met a lady, and we were building a life together, and that sort of fell apart. And then, in 2012-2013, for seven months, I ended up homeless. So, I went through all that to where I felt like I was doing well. And then I was homeless again in the city that I was once a star. I was sleeping in a Chevy Impala. I'd already been to the bottom before. So like I wasn't afraid. I wasn't nervous about being homeless. I knew I'd figure it out because everything is temporary to me. Any hardship is temporary. Like even when I went to prison, I said, "okay, they can keep me five years, but that's not forever." I'm getting out someday. I'm getting out.

When I was homeless, sometimes I could scrounge up enough money through hustling to like stay at the motel six or what have you. But I just tried to stay positive. Perspective is a big thing for me. So when people would say, "where are you staying tonight?" I'd say, "I'm staying at the mansion." "The mansion, what are you talking about?" "You might call it the motel six. But to me, it has 48 rooms, a swimming pool and a waffle house in the parking lot. So that sounds like a mansion to me, and they would laugh. And they'd say, I don't know how you do that, man. I'm like, trust me when you are used to losing, losing doesn't hurt. Because you know, it's not the end of the world. And so that took me about seven months, and I clawed my way out of that. And that's where people latch onto the story because it took me seven months to get out of that. A year later, I was earning over $100K selling copiers. Two years after that, I opened my gym, and the rest is history, and that's why I'm here now.

The way that I speak is to breathe life into you. Again, to leave you better than I found you. That doesn't say that you're not already whole, but I bet I can help you move the needle 2% just with the right words at the right time.