The Cheat Code Booklet

Who heals the healers? You do. Starting here.

If you're a credible messenger, an outreach worker, a violence interrupter, a case manager, a mentor — we already know what it costs to show up for everybody else. The hospital visits. The 2 a.m. calls. The "I'm good" we say so often we've started to believe it.

As Paul Carrillo, Vice President of the Giffords Center for Violence Intervention, puts it — "Violence intervention is not sustainable if we only invest in the healing of our communities while neglecting the healing of the frontline workers."

This is the field guide nobody handed us when we started this work — born out of the Who Heals the Healers? workshop, presented at the Giffords Center for Violence Intervention's national conference. Built from that workshop, The Cheat Code Booklet was written for the outreach workers, credible messengers, violence interrupters, reentry professionals, case managers, mentors, and community violence intervention (CVI) workers who spend their lives helping others survive their worst moments — while quietly running on empty themselves.

Inside, you'll find four practical pillars:

• Awareness — recognize what you're carrying before it carries you


• Emotional Vocabulary — build the language to name what's really going on, fast


• Regulation — field-ready tools for staying rooted and avoiding crashing out under pressure


• Support & Boundaries — how to stop carrying it alone without abandoning the people who depend on you

Rather than therapy talk or clinical language, Jonas Royster and Armand King speak from lived experience — writing as "we" and "us" because they've been where you are. This is not a self-help book written from the outside looking in. It's a pocket-sized, scannable field tool with practical exercises, quick-reference boxes, and a daily check-in practice built for the two minutes between one hard situation and the next. It fits in a glove box, a backpack, or a back pocket.

This booklet was built for people who already know how to show up for everyone else. It exists to help you learn how to show up for yourself — not someday, but right now, in the middle of the work.

For credible messengers, outreach teams, CVI organizations, reentry professionals, and anyone doing emotionally demanding frontline community work — this is a tool for staying level, staying present, and lasting in the work without losing yourself in it.

The work needs us. But you need you first.

Jonas Ulysses Royster is an award-winning and best-selling author, thought leader, and founder/CEO of Hood Proverbz. His work centers on self-leadership, personal responsibility, internal accountability, disciplined thinking, emotional intelligence, and character development.A former gang member who once faced a potential life sentence, Jonas transformed his own life through accountability, education, and personal growth. Today, he is recognized as a trusted voice in reentry, workforce development, community violence intervention, and personal transformation. Rather than focusing solely on overcoming adversity, Jonas teaches the principles, frameworks, and mindset shifts that help individuals and organizations create lasting change from the inside out.Through his writing, speaking, curriculum development, and organizational leadership, Jonas has impacted thousands of individuals across schools, correctional facilities, community organizations, workforce development programs, and leadership initiatives. He is the author of the award-winning urban fiction novel Bangin': The Making of a Y.G. and the best-selling Quotes Off the Wall: 31 Days to Break Bad Thinking Habits and Embrace Positivity, and co-author of The Cheat Code series - practical, field-tested tools including The Cheat Code to Reentry Hiring, The Cheat Code to Connection Before Compliance, and The Cheat Code Booklet: Staying Level Under Pressure & How to Avoid Crashing Out, written alongside Armand King for the outreach workers, credible messengers, and frontline professionals doing the hardest work in their communities.As the founder of Hood Proverbz, Jonas develops educational content, leadership curriculum, and transformational learning experiences that challenge people to stop outsourcing responsibility and start leading themselves. His message is rooted in a simple belief: when individuals learn to lead themselves better, they can lead their families, organizations, and communities more effectively.Whether speaking from a stage, facilitating a workshop, writing a book, or mentoring emerging leaders, Jonas is committed to helping people move from survival to self-leadership and from circumstance-driven living to purpose-driven action.

Armand King is the Executive Director of Programs at Walk With Me Impact and a nationally recognizedreentry practitioner with lived experience in the justice system. Formerly incarcerated and placed on bothstate and federal supervision, King has spent more than two decades supporting individuals transitioningfrom incarceration, probation, and parole. He previously led a nonprofit organization serving reentrypopulations and has managed programs focused on employment, entrepreneurship, financial literacy, andlife skills. King has also served on the San Diego Prop 47 Committee, the Board of State and CommunityCorrections Adult Reentry Grant Committee, and the San Diego Gang Prevention and InterventionCommission.