Welcome to Elevate with Elsner. Join us for inspiring conversations with individuals who have transformed their lives and are making a difference through the work that they do. And now, here's your host, Blake Elsner.

Welcome back to another episode of Elevate with Elsner where we go beyond the surface and talk about real growth, real transformation, and real impact. Today's guest is someone who has lived through it all. Success, setbacks, rock bottom, and redemption. The story isn't just about where he's been, but where he's going. And trust me, you don't want to miss this one. Carl Dicharo past is one of those stories that could be a movie. He spent years in federal prison, 10 years at the most in one sitting, navigating a life that he no longer serves today. But here's the real deal. Carl didn't let his past define him. Instead, he took control, rebuilt from the ground up, and now using his story to inspire, educate, and elevate others. It's not about where you start, it's about how you rise. So we're diving deep today into the lessons, the mindset shift, the moments of clarity, and the blueprint Carl used to turn it all around. If you ever felt like you were at a crossroads, like your past was holding you back, this episode's gonna be a wake-up call for you. Welcome to the show, Carl.

Blake Elsner

Hey, thanks. Thanks for having me.

Yeah.

Really appreciate it, Blake.

Absolutely. You know, I saw your story. You post your story in it and it was on social media. And I, you know, it immediately was like, whoa, man, this this dude really, you know, went through it. And I'm like, holy shit, he's back. Like, that's the stuff like that's truly You know, it's powerful because a lot of the shit you did as a young child that made you end up in prison was just passed down to you. You had to break the cycle and that's what you fucking did. So hell of a job, brother.

Yeah, I appreciate it. I'll tell you what, man, in the moment, you don't think of it. But as time passes by and the work that you put into, you know, not mentally, not just mentally, but physically, physically get away from it. It's a job in itself. It took me. Shit, 20 years, 25 years to actually figure it out, you know? And here I am, 42 years old, starting fresh. But I'll tell you what, great experience. I mean, I regret some of the things that I did, but it brought me to who I am today. And, you know, I'm grateful for that.

Yeah.

42.

You're still, I mean, that's young after somebody who would say, Hey, my longest, you know, sentence was 10 years in federal prison. So what, like, you know, let's just go back to your high school days was, or the first time you kind of got in trouble. Was that what, what was that like?

Yeah. Okay. So I'll say that I started to use methamphetamines at the age of 13. Uh, Growing up, I was a baseball star, had a lot of opportunities. My parents provided a lot for me to, to play baseball. That was my dream. And, you know, I played on teams, traveling, representing the state of Utah, trying to get into the little league world series, got teamed up with, uh, baseball academies. Yeah, I did it all growing up, tried to do the best I could, was really good at baseball, getting into high school. Let's see my junior, my, my last year in junior high, I made the varsity baseball team as a pitcher, starting pitcher and going into high school. I kind of lived a double life. I was a jock during the day, going to school, manipulating the teachers because of how good I was with baseball. And at night, man, I was sneaking out of my, my parents house and basement, my room out the window. running around with gang members and getting high on methamphetamines.

Yeah, that's pretty crazy. I mean, to be able to hold all that together is, you know, something that you obviously probably struggled and had to deal with.

Yeah, it was. It was pretty tough, but you know the it's just like it's just like when you when you adapt to something that comes natural, right? Like that was that lifestyle became so natural to me. It was just like. The baseball path that I wanted the career going to D1 school going to the big leagues like. I don't know the the lifestyle that I chose to live just seemed so natural and that's who I felt that I needed to be. One night I snuck out and hooked up with a gang member and we stole a Jeep, hooked up a U-Haul trailer to it. Man, we went and broke in so many garages and stole so much stuff. I was 18, just barely turned 18. And I had a promised career. I had a full-ride scholarship for baseball at this time. I had colleges talking to me. And sure enough, man, Got in a high speed chase that night, ended up getting arrested. My parents bailed me out. I ended up getting sentenced to a year in jail on that. Did six months on good behavior and 30 days later, I caught a federal case. I went to federal prison, hit the yard at 19 years old. And I'll tell you what, like baseball career, I had a decision to make, right? Like play pro ball. I mean, go to D1, take a full ride scholarship, make it to the pros. I've always wanted to play for Chicago Cubs. That was my dream. Play on Wrigley Field. But I was faced with the decision. I chose to give that lifestyle up and join a gang. At 19, I hit the federal yard as a gang member.

That's pretty. So when you, you said you went to jail for a year. Um, well, I did six months. I did six months. Okay. For that, for, um, the U-Haul incident. And then how did you end up in prison? How'd you end up with a federal charge? Was that from that?

Yeah. So in the gang life, unfortunately, you know, you carry guns. Um, it's just the lifestyle. So not even immediately. Once I got out of jail during the six months, you know, The guys that I ran with, the gang, they were there greeting me with the gun and drugs and money and said, here you go, let's get started. Not too long after that, I got arrested and fell into possession of firearms, took me to federal prison. And there it just got worse, man. I just went to federal prison. As a gang member, 19 years old, chip on my shoulder, felt I had to prove something. Eventually, I worked my way up to being one of the big dogs on the yard. I went to federal prison three different times. I've been in Nevada State Prison once, did 10 years in the state of Utah. It was just a repeated cycle. It was the lifestyle that I chose and felt that that's what my life calling was, was to be an active gang member and just serve time in prisons.

So what, you know, what exactly? So when you're in prison that when you're 19 years old and how long was that stint at 19? Three years. So three years. And what did that consist of from 19 to what, 22, 23? Yeah.

A lot of gang fights, a lot of tension on the yards, trying to survive, trying to make a name for myself in the federal system. Um, you go in the, you go into the federal system that young, you know, if you don't puff your chest out and immediately make a statement, then, you know, you're going to get pushed around. So that's one of the things that I had to do was let people know that, Hey, I'm 19, but I got a pretty nasty punch. So let's just, uh, let's just make this work for.

Don't fuck with me and you have to prove that by what just, you know, going up and start. Hey, let's get in a fight. Let's, you know, change. I don't know how to eat.

Yes. So in the federal system, it's pretty political, right? You're separated by races. Of course, blacks run with blacks, whites run with whites, Mexicans run with Mexicans. Um, very, very political. And, you know, you get, when you're in the federal system, you're dealing with, you're dealing with mafia too. Like you got the Italian mafia on the yard. You got the black hand, which is the Mexican mafia. You have Russian mafia, Chinese mafia, like you got some heavy hitters, um, that are in the federal system. So yeah, you just gotta, you gotta be alert, pay attention and just, to do to survive. Typically, the younger people that come into the population and the federal systems, you know, the OGs, the older, the older guys will make them basically be their bitch. And once that happens, you know, your numbers up, of course, then you owe them. In my case, I couldn't let that happen just because of the reputation that I had on the street coming into the federal system. So I just, I kept it rolling.

So that's interesting. Cause you had to do that. That's just like, you know, you had no other choice basically. That's just like you're in that, that ecosystem. And the only way to survive is to basically keep, you know, committing crimes inside of a prison, a federal prison.

Yeah. Yeah. You gotta, you gotta definitely do what you gotta, you know, do what it takes to survive. You got to click up with the white boys. If you're white, click up with the blacks, you know, and it's just not a I mean, inside the each race, you got politics, but then you got the yard politics where at any given moment, you know, you might be going to war with the blacks or you might be going to war with the Mexicans or the natives. It's definitely every day you got to. do what it takes to survive and be ready to protect yours.

You know, it's interesting to me because not to like sidetrack it, but, you know, we got a lot of, like you say, dangerous individuals and individuals that would, you know, fight for their lives. And you kind of look around at some of these prisons and I'm like, damn, like nobody's going to take over this country or some of these crazy people inside of these federal prisons, right? They're just going to help us, you know, protect our protect our country. You know what I mean?

Yeah, no, it's, it's, it's crazy. Yeah. There's a lot of dangerous people, man. And a lot of people really don't know, like, unless if you're in it personally, or you got family that's been involved in it, you just the caliber of people in there and they're good people. They just make shitty choices. You know, it's just what it boils down to. That's what I did. I mean, look at me today. I'm running a trucking company. Um, 10 years ago, I was an active gang member, hardcore, going hard at it. My nickname was Knuckles. Man, I love to fight. I love to put shows on. And here I am now, like 42 years old, never, ever would have thought to be in the position I am today, running a trucking company and just getting, building solid relationships, trustworthy, honest relationships, relationships that help you become successful in life. And you know, those people who I used to be, they're not bad people. They just made bad choices. And unfortunately the way that the system is, um, you know, a lot of people say the system's set up to, to make us fail. But, uh, I thought that for a long time when I got, when I got sentenced to this last, the 10 years that I just, uh, got done with, I mean, I've been out four and a half years now and, uh, I wanted to, like, I was in a dark place. I did a home invasion. My family turned their backs on me, went into a house we shouldn't have been in. And unfortunately, it brought me to 95 years in prison that I was facing. I had two aggravated kidnapping charges. I had three aggravated robberies, aggravated burglary. It wasn't looking pretty for me. I got arrested and I just wanted to and I just wanted to kill myself. Seriously, I was in a very dark, dark place. There was no hope for me. I was I was convinced that my life was. Prison and I just wanted to end it because of the life I kept choosing. So when I when I talk about the system, you know, a lot of people say it's it's set up to make us fail. It's just, to me, it's a hoax because individually we'd have the choice to make the difference. And that's something that I had to focus on in the 10 years that I did. Remind you, I went in as an active gang member. So getting out of that shit wasn't easy. I had to face some consequences. I had to face the people that felt betrayed and I did it, you know, because I wanted to be somebody different. I wanted to, I wanted to make a difference. I wanted to show people that regardless of the way we've lived in the past, what tattoos are on our body. I mean, my body's covered from my neck all the way down to my toes and it doesn't, those moments don't define you. The system doesn't create your future. And I had to reprogram my brain to think differently in the 10 years that I served so I can get out, to get away from that lifestyle, to become somebody. I didn't know who I was going to be. I knew that I wanted something better. And I'll tell you what, the work that I had to put in to get away from it and to gain the knowledge that it took Um, it was a lot. It was, it was definitely a lot. I mean, I lived on the streets. I was an active gang member running and gunning drugs, sleeping with women, um, being disrespectful. Just, yeah, I was an evil person, ugly, but deep down inside, I knew I was a good person. I just had to find out how to get that person to to come alive and put the work in to get there.

So not to jump back to your childhood, but obviously you said at 13 you started doing methamphetamine and You know, clearly you had you known what would happen. You wouldn't have done that. You're 13. You have no fucking clue what's going on in life. So but going back to like your age from like six to, you know, 12, was was there some like trauma that occurred during, you know, it sounded like you're super, you know, super blessed, like you said, and your parents gave you a lot of opportunity. And you did you just run into the wrong crowd or is it?

Yeah, so my brother, my brother was a cook. He cooked methamphetamines. It was, so the day that I had used for my first time, it was Christmas morning and my parents, we had a lot of, I have a lot of siblings and buying gifts in my home just became so complicated because nobody was ever happy with what they got. So my parents just started to give us money and let us go just do what we needed to do with it or get what we wanted. And I took a ride with my brother to go pick up his daughter and we got to his daughter's mom's house and he wanted to borrow the money that I received from Christmas. And I'm like, okay, I mean, it's my big bro, right? Like I'm going to trust him. Like nothing's going to big bros asking. So I'm just going to say, okay. So I did. And I seen, I seen a transaction that happened and now it kind of piqued my curiosity. I was, you know, watching everything. And he then made a glass pipe with a, piece of glass and a torch and he did it in front of me and he loaded the meth and I thought it was the coolest thing. It looked awesome. And I was like, well, again, if big bros doing it, like it's got to be OK. And then I said, big bro, what's going on? What is that? And he's like, don't worry about it. Don't say nothing. I was like, OK, now it's something. So then I kind of forced him to let me try it. I told him that I was going to tell my mom. I knew something at this point was off and then he gave in and gave me a hit and I was trapped from that point to where I decided to make a difference. And it's a lot of years of addiction, you know, at the age of 13, using it for the first time, I swear I signed my soul over to the devil.

Where's your brother right now?

Oh, man, he's doing really good. He runs a T-shirt company. He's he's living life. He's good. Yeah, he doesn't he's sober.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's that's awesome. So there's two of you that have come back. I didn't even realize that. I mean, that's that's truly incredible.

Yeah, but he he wasn't like I'm the only one in the family that had physically done the things that I did. They were addicts. I mean, I have a sister today that's using. Two other sisters had been addicts. And my brother, none of them went to prison. None of them joined a gang. None of them lived on the streets. So I mean, yeah, they fought their own battles with their addictions. And they had some consequences that they had to face, of course, but nothing like what I had to go through.

Yeah. And clearly the, the gang side, you can tell, obviously you have some, probably some business mentalities in you. So as a kid, you're probably like, well, drugs, business, here's, I can make money. You know what I mean? It just makes sense. And if somebody is just addicted, they're just, you know, and they don't really have a drive and you're surrounded by that, you're going to be like, that's the job. And you're kind of the guy that honestly put in the work, you know what I mean? If you think about it.

Yeah, no, it's, that's true. And that's, that's why I moved up high up in the gang. Cause I wasn't afraid. I didn't care who you was. I didn't care how many people you had in your corner. I was coming and I was going to let you know in advance because I just, I love to put the show on. Shake their hand right before.

Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. So fast forward to these 10 years, you're out. That final day, we don't need to talk about obviously prison food. Everybody knows it's not great, right? I'm sure you could talk about that all day long, about how terrible that was. The day you got out, what, you know, you, do you remember that? Like the final day that you served behind bars, whether it was, you know, literally just the final, final day of your life that was ever behind bars where you finally came out to fresh air.

Yeah. You know, I've been released out of jails and prisons a lot of times. Um, This last time it was something different because I had already set my path, right? I knew where I wanted to be at this point. I put in a lot of work to get where I needed to be to prepare myself for the world because I knew it wasn't gonna be easy. I knew that there was gonna be some challenges but I had already set everything in motion. I mentally prepared myself, re-educated myself, read self-help books. connected with the right people to get me started when I got out. And when I when I got released, man, it was like. I knew at that point I was never, ever going to walk back inside prison and inside the prison walls. A lot of times in that cycle, when you get released, your your homeboys are putting bets on when they're going to see you again to come back. you know, a lot of people give it 30 days, within 30 days, they're already on the run, jump parole, probation. And, uh, you know, you give your stuff away in prison and they're like, Oh, we'll just hold it for you. You'll be back in a couple of weeks. Knowing that I didn't have to, to carry that burden on my shoulders, because at this point I got out of prison by myself. I didn't, I cut all ties with the gang. I cut all ties with everybody in my past. So essentially, I was a lone wolf the whole time. And when I got out, I didn't have to carry that burden on my shoulders. And that sunshine hit my face. It just was a it was a blessing because I knew I was never going to go back. I made the decision to to never have to to have a conversation again with the correctional officer or to see the prison walls or to sleep on the little cot that they give you or take a shit on porcelain toilets. I didn't have to worry about any of that. So my feelings when I got out, I was blessed, a new man, knowing that I was never going to go back to that crap.

That, you know, it's pretty cool to hear you say that because, you know, like to hear you even like you're you're the way you can even articulate and talk and and somebody that spent so much time in prison, you see how you're, you know, it's hard to stay up, you know, up to pace with modern life, like you're inside walls. So, you know, it's impressive that you're already here and you've got a hell of a trucking, um, business and that already. And it hasn't, you know, it hasn't been, I want to say it's hasn't been that long, but it has obviously. Um, but at the same time, like you've built a, an awesome business from, you know, from what you've come from, it's, that's truly incredible. It really is. Yeah.

You know, so when I got out, I wanted to find a, a, I wanted to find my soulmate. I wanted to get married. I didn't rush into it. I ended up getting married pretty quick coming out of prison. My wife, Amber, you know, one of the best, best choices I've ever made. She's, she's my better half for sure. And our first Halloween together, we were sitting in our front room, passing out candy. And I looked at her and I was like, what did we do last year for Halloween? Where did we stay home and pass out candy? She's like, um, Carl, you were in prison last year. And I'm like, really? Like, that's how much I dedicated to get away from that stuff. And that's how, like, how much I was blessed being released and receiving the things that I had coming out and making the right choices. Less than a year, I totally forgot I was even in prison.

That's wild, that is. And then you're just going, holy crap. And now today, yeah, I'm sure there's nothing that bothers you, or I'm sure there's very few things that trigger you. I'm sure we all have triggers, but you've made it literally to the depths of the worst possible place you can be to basically the best spot. Everything in between. I mean, you've seen the whole spectrum, as they'd say, right? Yeah, no, for sure.

And I'll tell you what. I'm grateful, like I regret some of the decisions I've made in my past because of the people that I had hurt. Unfortunately, you know, I paid my restitution and I and I still to this day, moving forward for the rest of my life, I will find ways to make restitution in situations to make up for what I had done in the past. But living my life today, I'm happy regardless of what I've gone through and I went through some shit. And I know that I had to do it to get where I am today. And I'm happy for that, man. Like I said, I'm 42 years old. I still got a lot of life left. I've wasted a lot of life. It's all good.

Let that shit go. You know, I can tell that you've let it go and that, you know, you have to like, you just have to throw that shit back and just keep, keep living because like you said, life's already short enough. It's, you know, every day, um, you know, every time you can throw a rock out of that backpack, life gets a little easier. You know what I mean? You're, you're, you're lessening that weight on your, on your back and you're just kind of, you know, enjoying the journey.

Yeah, for sure. I'll tell you what, that backpack was heavy. It's still heavy, but you know what? It gets lighter. It gets lighter every day I choose to get rid of a rock. And, you know, those rocks are meant to be on our backs for a reason, right? They allow us to become strong, stronger than what we were the day before. And, you know, they don't weigh us down. It doesn't keep us at a slower pace. The more you get rid of it, the more you look forward. Life ain't a race, right? But you can get there a lot faster.

Totally. Another thing I always say is, You know, you don't forgive somebody in terms of like their actions disappearing. You always forgive somebody for your own self. People's actions will always remain, but you forgive people for yourself because that's how it should be. And that's how you restore, you know, friendships and, you know, you know, express gratitude and just different things of that nature and not holding grudges. So like when you're saying like, Hey, you know, you might've hurt some people. It's like, they'll forgive if, if they know how to properly forgive is what I would say.

Yeah. And that's, and that's the thing that I had to learn too, because that weight carrying that shit on your shoulders, I'll tell you what, that's a lot heavier than a backpack full of rocks. you know, just because personally, um, you know, being in the moment of that, but it's not, it's not up to me for them to forgive. I just gotta, I gotta lead by example. I just gotta do what I need to, to, to show people like, regardless of the choices that I've made and how it affected you today, I can get back, you know, that's my restitution. That's right.

That's why I would say you got nothing to prove to anybody because nobody, yeah, it's like you have nothing to prove to anybody. Look forward, stay forward. And I can tell that you're going to crush it, man. Only being 42, shit, you're still young for a guy that's gone through a life of that most will never, you know, obviously you don't want to go through it. But like I say, things, shit happens for a reason. And like I said, when you're 13, you have no idea what's going on. Like you, your brother was there and You're like, big bro, cool. And then the next thing, it just turns to that, because that's all you know. It's a belief system. It's what you're in. It's the lifestyle that you get caught up in. And most people that are in that do. You don't choose that. You don't go, oh, I want to smoke meth at 13. That's not how it works. I mean, it just doesn't. You know what I mean?

Yeah. No, it doesn't, for sure. Yeah. Definitely you don't look at it and think, oh man, yeah, that's what I was supposed to be doing at 13, right? At 13, you're supposed to be throwing, making mud balls and chucking them at your little bros, like your friends in the yard.

Throwing eggs when they were cheaper. Yeah, for sure.

You definitely don't think that's where you're supposed to be.

I know. Well, man, this is this has been a powerful, powerful conversation. And I really appreciate you coming on here and just sharing, like, all the insights of your life and the, you know, the bottoms and lows and the highs. And I know going forward, you're going to play a very high role in helping you know, inmates in the federal prison system make it out because there you have a special purpose, I think, in terms of helping people get back on their feet inside the prison system. And I'm surprised you don't even speak in prisons yet, because I'm sure that's something that I see in your future. And I think it's going to be very powerful.

So, yeah. definitely an opportunity that I wouldn't, I wouldn't pass on for sure. There's a lot of hoops that you got to jump through to get there, but it's definitely something that I've, I've looked into, um, just a little bit, of course, you know, other, other things in life have kind of taken me away from that. But I think we're to the point where, you know, we're ready to, to get more of my story out there to, to help people. Because like I said, The more you hold back, the less you share. You're just being selfish and you're not giving the next person an opportunity to to grow.

That's totally right. That's that's what we say all the time is if you're holding back information that can help somebody else, you're just being ignorant. Yeah, so true. So, you know, I appreciate you sharing this stuff because I'm sure it's not easy. But like I said, your story is going to help whether it's somebody that's maybe in the system just new or been in the system 10 years and coming out, I know that your impact's gonna, it's gonna go far and wide. And I really appreciate you coming on here and spilling your soul to everybody.

Yeah, no, I appreciate you giving me the opportunity. Definitely, I'm blessed for it, so thank you.

Yeah, absolutely, Carl. Well, thanks for coming on. And if anybody wants to connect with Carl, he is on Facebook. So I'll have that link to that in the show notes. And other than that, let me know going forward if there's any other guests that you want to see come on Elevate with Elsner. Until next time, one love.

Thanks so much for tuning into this episode. We sure do appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show wherever you consume podcasts. This way you'll get updates as new episodes become available. And if you feel so inclined, please leave us a review and tell your friends about the show. Until next time.