Guest Story Gregg Champion, Start Up Recovery & The Recovery Playbook Ep. 20

Our last guest for Season 1 will be a memorable one! What an amazing conversation we had in episode 20 with Gregg Champion the founder of Start Up Recovery in Los Angeles, California and creator of The Recovery Playbook. Gregg has over 27 years of sobriety under his belt and has pursued his passion for helping people struggling with substance abuse and alcoholism. His Recovery Playbook program  takes an  entrepreneurial approach to recovery which is very unique. We could have talked to Gregg for hours. His motivational journey and infectious energy will have you hanging on every word!

For more info visit Start Up Recovery website:https://www.startuprecovery.com/
Find Gregg on Instagram @ https://www.instagram.com/greggchampion/
or @ https://www.instagram.com/startuprecovery/
and https://www.instagram.com/therecoveryplaybook/

Be a guest on our show https://forms.gle/GE9YJdq4J5Zb6NVC6

Music provided by Premium Beats: https://www.premiumbeat.com
Song: Rise and Thrive
Artist: Young Presidents

Notable Mentions:
The Mask we live in Documentary
Miss Representation Documentary
Oprah & Deepak Perfect Health 21 Day Meditation Challenge
The Power of Now
The Four Agreements
Man's Search for Meaning
Dr. Gabor Mate https://drgabormate.com/topics/addiction/

**Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this episode are not professional or medical opinions. If you are struggling with an addiction please contact a medical professional for help.

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Be a guest on our show: https://forms.gle/GE9YJdq4J5Zb6NVC6
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Tracey: https://www.instagram.com/tnd1274/
Kelly: https://www.instagram.com/pamperedkel/
Lindsey: https://www.instagram.com/hariklindsey/

**Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this episode are not professional or medical opinions. If you are struggling with an addiction please contact a medical professional for help.

Music provided by Premium Beats: https://www.premiumbeat.com
Song: Rise and Thrive
Artist: Young Presidents

Resources:
Wellness Togethe...

Transcript

Guest Story Gregg Champion, The Recovery Playbook

[00:00:00] Kelly: Welcome to the laugh life podcast, a lifestyle podcast based on living alcohol free and a booze-soaked world. My name is Kelly Evans and together with my friends, Tracey, Djordjevic, Mike Sutton and Lindsay Harik. We share uncensored. Unscripted real conversations about what our lives have been like since we ditched alcohol and how we got here by sharing our individual stories.

[00:00:26] Kelly: We'll show you that there isn't just one way to do this, no matter where you are on your journey from sober, curious to years in recovery and everyone in between, you are welcome here, no judgment and a ton of support.

[00:00:42] Tracey: Welcome to the LAF life podcast. This is episode 20. We have a very special guest with us tonight. Greg Champion, Greg is the founder of Startup recovery in Los Angeles, California. He is also the creator of The Recovery Playbook. Greg has over 27 years of sobriety under his belt and has pursued his passion to help people struggling with substance abuse and alcoholism. Thank you so much for being here with us tonight, Greg, we are so excited to dive into this conversation and find out more about you and these endeavors. 

[00:01:15] Gregg: Awesome. Tracey, nice to meet you. Nice to meet Mike Kelly and Lindsey. I love Canadians by the way. I get it. You're nice. I've been to a couple, I've been to Montreal and Toronto and the nicest people, very kind and walking cities. You get to walk in them yeah. So, well, thank you for having me on your podcast in the. Yeah, I'm here for you for the next hour and let's see if we can help some people. 

[00:01:44] Tracey: Yeah, that's amazing. Let's start off maybe a little bit about your own personal journey, your journey to sobriety and the kind of stuff that you were challenged with and faced and what was really kind of your demons struggling with addiction and then how that's led you to where you are today.

[00:02:03] Gregg: Yeah, so I'm a big believer that most addicts and alcoholics at some have some sort of childhood pain shame, trauma drama, sometimes all four. And I, I definitely was one of those kids. My father was killed in a drunk-on-drunk car crash when I was four and a half years old. Oh my God. Wow. And I remember my mom coming in to wake me up to go to school and she, it wasn't a conversation about going to.

[00:02:27] Gregg: And I used to remember that the day I did go to school, I felt different. I was being raised by a single mom, single income. My dad wasn't going to be my, my little league coach. And I just remember that I was really angry. I remember that I, I was addicted as three things before drugs and alcohol, anger, attention, and fantasy.

[00:02:47] Gregg: And the attention part came from a woman. I was blonde, curly hair, blue eyes, this little cute boy. And the babysitter would be like, oh, what a cute kid? Or the teacher would say something. Or my mom would take me to the beauty salon and the grandmas would make a big deal about me. And I really liked that energy. I was really angry because I was pissed that I didn't have a dad and I love Fantasy. When I grew up, in 1975, I remember I wouldn't go into the deep end of the pool. Cause I thought jaws was there. And in 1976, I wanted to be Rocky Balboa, in 1977 star wars came out and I wanted to be Luke Skywalker in a 1978, this great movie with a black Trans-Am known as smoking abandoned, came out and I'm like, oh, when I grow up, I'm going to have a black Trans-Am right, Mike, you got it.

[00:03:34] Gregg: Right. So, I just rotated between anger and fantasy and attention and all that for years. And then, like I said, trauma, drama, and pain. And when I was eight years old, a male neighbor was inappropriate with me and that really shocked my system. I didn't see that coming. I didn't know who to tell. I didn't tell anyone. And I held that secret and for a long, long time, and I just festered the other three things. And then when I was 13, I'm going through puberty. I'm a freshman in high school. And, and guess what, there's available. Things known as pot, cocaine, and booze. I grew up in San Diego next to Tijuana. And when I drank for the first time I go, oh my God, thank God, I've balanced you because it really watered down the fantasy of water down the, the attention and a water down the anger. And I really bought into that pot booze, cocaine life as a young man in San Diego, fortunately, my mom did remarry. She married a guy who was a World War II vet. He was the greatest generation. He actually was on Omaha beach. On D-Day. So, if you've seen the scene from saving private Ryan, he is one of those men storming the beach as a 17-year-old. He went to Northwestern university on the GI bill. was a self-made man. I sometimes get it's tough for me to say this, but I would, the best part of what he brought it in to the family was he loved my mom. And the other thing he brought in the family was that he taught me how to tie a tie, shaved my face, open a door for women old-school values. And the most important thing he brought into the, the house was 17 years of a sobriety. Though I was not ready for it. I remember going to these AA meetings with him. He said, come to get me a cake. And I'm like, come give you a cake. What the hell is that? And, and, you know, did they, Amy? And he said, these cakes, these plastic cakes that look like they've been run over by an 18-Wheeler and have these funny chips and you hold hands.

[00:05:30] Gregg: And I'm like, what is this kumbaya crap? You know? And I just was like, all right, once a year, I'll do this for you. And then you know, alcohol and booze didn't really bother me. I never get trouble when I chose a university. And I don't know if you're aware of the school in the United States, but it's known as Arizona state university.

[00:05:46] Gregg: Oh yeah. Mike's like, oh, I bet they're so, so, so what I want to say about Arizona state university is, is that I found you guys there. I found these great drugs and these great addicts, and these great, beautiful women am I I'm in heaven. And I, so it took me five years to get through their mic because I, I needed to take my time.

[00:06:06] Gregg: And I really, I graduated with a degree in broadcast journalism for the Walter Cronkite school of broadcast. Journalism is one thing I am proud of. But I was there on vacation for five years, you know, and it's what we do. And I don't know if it's the same in Canada as it is in the United States, but we were told when you get a degree and you get out in the real world, right.

[00:06:26] Gregg: All your hopes and dreams will come true. But that wasn't true for me. I literally got a DUI on my graduation. Oh my God. Graduation. and I proceeded to get arrested over the next two years, seven other times. Oh wow. And this one way to celebrate. And so, I want to just say. That, you know when I took this, I took my first job.

[00:06:49] Gregg: It was at a TV station, and I had the overnight shift from 6:00 PM to 3:00 AM. And for the first six months I loved it. I got to run cameras and be this guy and this, and I was hanging out in the sportscasters, but right around 1130 after the last newscast, everybody goes home and I'm alone. And I don't know about you guys, but what I'm drinking or using, or when I get alone, guess what I like to do.

[00:07:12] Gregg: I like to drink and use. So, I'd go out in the parking lot, slam a few beers, take the beer, can poke some holes in it and started smoking some pot, right. Old school. And then I go back in and my job as a 22-year-old was to run the station. So, I'd have an episode of Cosby. And I go to commercials and go back to Cosby. And so, let's just say I was not very good at my job, but what I want to say is, I don't know about you guys, but when I got out of work at 3:00 AM, none of my high school friends were around none of my college friends around, but did we have friends at 3:00 AM? Yes, we did. And I found those people. And what proceeded to happen over the next couple of years was that my disease got worse because what happened was, I began getting arrested for I'd walk into bars and get tossed and I would get in fights, and I got a couple assault charges.

[00:08:02] Gregg: I got another DUI. I even went to Mardi Gras, New Orleans. And I got arrested twice in 24 hours. Oh, wow. I may not have been New Orleans, but Mike is shaking his head. Like I know what that story is all about, but this is the insanity of an alcoholic and addict. I went up to this big Irish cop on bourbon street and I said, listen, it's Friday night. I got three days here. Can you tell me what, what things I get can get in trouble for? And he says, son, don't piss in my streets and don't fight my streets. So, I asked you four esteemed wise people. What, two things I got arrested for fighting in the streets. Because when you talk to this big knucklehead, when I'm drinking, I don't care about the consequences.

[00:08:46] Gregg: I am an animal and I want to; I want to do what I want to do when I want to do it. And the more I drink and the more I do blow in the more you smoke pot, the more pills I give up, the more it becomes Greg's world. And what I didn't realize was that the New Orleans police department didn't like, Greg's.

[00:09:00] Gregg: And, and so that's just a badge of honor, I guess getting arrested twice in 24 hours, but here's where the real sickness came in, was these lower companions began whispering in my ear. Hey, listen, college board, do you have friends on the east coast? I said, yeah, I know people in Boston because I'm a people pleaser.

[00:09:15] Gregg: I have people friends in east coast, New York, Boston, DC. He said, hey, why don't we start sending them pot? And I said, exactly Lindsey. Oh. And so, if I knew you guys back then I will be sending you guys’ pot because, we could figure out the border thing. And what it was, it was two pounds of pot and FedEx.

[00:09:32] Gregg: Then it became four pounds, then 10 pounds. And I began taking large amounts of marijuana, 50 pounds at a time in suitcases, wrapped up in coffee beans and, and all this other stuff. and it was a good life because here's why I would go there. First of all, to get on the flight, I had to get hammered six double red bull, no six double cranberry and vodka, a couple of tutes Coke and definitely a big blunt, because I was so ashamed that this good kid from a good Catholic family who went to private school, college degree was a drug dealer.

[00:10:05] Gregg: Wasn't a fucking drug dealer. And, and my friends were at Stanford and Michigan. And here I was at the thing is that the booze and alcohol got me over there. And then when I saw the money, I go, oh, okay. It's all. Well, let me just tell you guys I'm a horrible drug dealer because I make mistakes. I sit on the phone too long.

[00:10:25] Gregg: I don't cross the T's and dot the I's and guess what? I like cocaine a lot. And so, a lot of my earnings went up my nose I got lazy in my entrepreneurial pursuit of being a cannabis entrepreneur. And I got arrested with 50 pounds of pot. Oh no. Yes. And I was in shock, and I remember standing in front of the judge and he's looking over my record. He's like you went to private school, you have a college degree. Your last name is champ. How did this happen? And I don't know about you guys, but when I'm drunk and high in an animal, I utter these three words.

[00:11:01] Gregg: I don't know. I don't know. And here's what the judge says to me. He says, hey, here's what I know. If I see you in my courtroom in the next six months, I'm going to give you the five years of prison hanging over your head. Let me remind you. I had curly blonde hair, bright blue highs. I was not going to farewell.

[00:11:16] Gregg: Well, you were getting, you were getting attention that day. That's what I was going to get. Yeah. Yes, yes, yes. I was going to be very popular, very fast. And so, what I want to say is, I wish I could tell you the story stop then. But 18 days later, I found myself in my little sports car with I've already drank six months.

[00:11:36] Gregg: There you go. There's a shot of it, right? Yeah. And I've already had a couple of blunts and I had a couple of bundles of Coke on me. And I go to this party of the year. And then let me tell you the party of the year is that I'm going to a party where I know nobody it's a big party, but all my high school friends, all my college friends have already left me.

[00:11:53] Gregg: They're like, he's bad news. You remember the kid, your parents warned you about, I was that kid, but now I'm in my twenties and I'm. So, I go to the party of the year and within 10 minutes, a nice-looking guy, like Mike walks up to me and says, hey, you got a couple of you got any, you got any blow on you. I'm like, oh yeah, come with me. Let's go. We go down the stairs, down to my sports car. And I pull up my Duran Duran CD case. Okay. Don't judge. It was the early nineties. He had a good album here and there love 

[00:12:20] Tracey: Duran Duran 

[00:12:21] Gregg: right there, classic half the bands and re and recovery, by the way.

[00:12:26] Gregg: So, shocker and I pulled out the Duran Duran, CDKs creep, a couple lines and I put it out like this and next thing you know, San Diego police department. No. 

[00:12:37] Tracey: Yeah. And that's what, it's how many hours after the other arrest, this 

[00:12:40] Gregg is 18 days 18. I remember the judge says to me, yeah, bye. See you in my courtroom the next six months.

[00:12:45] Gregg: So, I wake up in the cell pretty bad. 

[00:12:49] Lindsey: This is pretty bad. 

[00:12:50] Gregg: Oh, it's you don't. This is what I'm absolutely devastated because I'm sending myself, I'm going to make front page news. I'm going to lose five years of my life. And I'm really scared as I'm really scared and I'm, and I'm in the fetal position in the morning.

[00:13:07] Gregg: I wake up and I'm in this cell. And luckily, I got arrested in Del Mar, California, which is a nice area. And there weren’t too many people in the cell it's clean and, and I'm very distraught. And I'm this little voice in the corner says, Greg, there's a better way. Who's talking to me, Greg. There's a better way. And I look around, there's nobody in myself. There's no, there's no guard talking to me. And it's just this voice that I'm hearing call your mother, call my mother. I'm gonna call my mother. She's 60 years old. She's gonna feed him. I told him; you went away for five years of prison. Voice says to me, call your mother.

[00:13:39] Gregg: And I called my mother from jail. And I tell her, I said, mom, I'm facing five years in prison. And here's why. And she pauses on the phone, and she says Gregory, because all parents call you by their formal name, right? The full name, Gregory, Michael. And she says, I want you to go to church. You want me to go to church?

[00:13:57] Gregg: I say, she says, yeah, I want you go to church. Now. Luckily, I was able to bail myself out that day. I licked my wounds. I went and got a big gulp of Coca-Cola ate some Chinese food. And I looked up at a Catholic mass at six o'clock and I went and after the mass, the priest says, hey, listen, we're going to do confessions.

[00:14:14] Gregg: Tonight, that I have three rooms over here and I have three rooms over here, those who want to come Bess please pick a door and go confess. And my thinking is this. And this is how sick the disease of alcoholism and addiction is. If I go confess, I can go out tonight. If I go confess, I can go out tonight.

[00:14:29] Gregg: And by grace, by the grace of God, I picked door number two and I walk in and it's not like the godfather with the screen and can make up a name. And they don't know your face. It's literally sitting this far away from another human being who happens to have white hair, laser blue eyes. And isn't a white cloak and he has an Irish accent, and I cannot do an Irish accent.

[00:14:49] Gregg: I wish I could, but he says, son, tell me your sins. I'll tell you, my sins. I said, father, when I smoke a lot of pot, I show up on Christmas on December 27th. When I drink, I go into bars, and I hurt people. When I do a lot of Coke. I date three women at the same time, and they didn't have no idea that I'm doing it.

[00:15:06] Gregg: Now, when I do all three of those drugs, I've played large amounts of marijuana to the east coast. He sits back and he says, son, do you think you have a problem with drugs and alcohol? No, but then I paused, and I let that sink in and I said, well, why do you ask me? And he goes, well, the sins you just explained were, have drugs and alcohol.

[00:15:23] Gregg: And going back to my prior arrest you guys, Greg plus drugs and alcohol equal jail. Right? And so, I sat there, and I said, God, you're the second man in my life to ever ask me about that. And he goes, who was the first? I said, my stepfather. He says, well, what was your stepfather's name? I said, Walt, Janicki, he reaches over, grabs my hand firmly and says I was Walt Janicki’s first sponsor.

[00:15:47] Tracey: No way that isn't a sign. I don't know. 

[00:15:50] Gregg: Remember the bullheaded knucklehead needed something. This was it. This was my, as I like to call God shot. This was my Providence moment. And I thought to myself, whatever this guy tells me to do next I'm going to do. And here's what he said to me. He says, your sins don't belong here.

[00:16:07] Gregg: They belong four blocks up at the Alano club and our habits to be in a meeting starting. I think you should go. 

[00:16:12] Lindsey: Wow.

[00:16:12] Gregg: And folks that was 11 7, 19 94. I went to a seven 30 meeting, and I've been sobered ever since. 

[00:16:19] Lindsey: That's amazing. 

[00:16:19] Tracey: Wow. That's awesome. 

[00:16:21] Gregg: And the reason why I remain sober, and I hang on to that is because I figure the universe or God had such a big play in that, that I wouldn't want to slap the universe in the face.

[00:16:33] Gregg: I wouldn't want to, break that moment, and I've just really held onto that moment, like, wow, that was your, that was your why in the road. The other part of that guys is I went and visited him, and he became my sponsor. And he had his name happens to be Father Bill Wilson, which is the same name as the founder of alcoholics anonymous.

[00:16:51] Gregg: So, this is cuckoo for cocoa puffs. I know, but this is crazy. This is, this is crazy. And so, but I went to him, and I said, I said, father, bill, what do you want me to do? He's like, I want you to do three things. I want you to don't drink or use no matter what. I want you to go to 90 meetings in 90 days. And I want you to take boxing lessons, boxing lessons.

[00:17:09] Gregg: He goes, yeah, because we use the first two. You're gonna have so much resentment and anger. You've got to put itself. So, when I sponsor someone or I coach someone or I mentor someone, guess what I tell them to do, don't drink or use no matter what, go to 90 minutes and nine days and do some form of exercise, get that dopamine going, get that, sweat it out of you.

[00:17:25] Gregg: Because what I feel is that a lot of resentment anger comes out because that's a lot of reason why we drank and used. And so, I tell you that long-winded story because it's a goddamn miracle. I guess I'll stop there and allow you guys to ask me a question and dig deeper or whatever.

[00:17:43] Gregg: I'm coming up on 28 years on the 11 seven. I just want to tell you how smart this guy is. When it came to marry my wife, I married her on seven 11 just to keep my numbers straight acronym for your kiss. Keep it simple. Stupid. My numbers are 11 to seven to seven 11. So, I'm leaving 

[00:18:00] Mike: married at a seven 11.

[00:18:02] Tracey: Can we touch on your name for a moment, Greg? I meant to mention this at the beginning and forgot because I watched your Ted talk. And you talked about your name, which no doubt anybody would feel that would be a lot to live up to. And I also thought it was neat how you changed the spelling of your first name. So maybe you want to share that. 

[00:18:25] Gregg: Sure. Sure. Awesome. Tracey, thank you for that. I love talking about this because I'm, I'm a big believer that all of us have a superpower. All of us have a factor. And part of our journey is to find out what that hit factor is. And as a little boy, I don't really know what the name champion meant till probably I was five or six years old and it was time to play sports, and people think, oh, they just assume you're good at sports because your last name is champion.

[00:18:50] Gregg: They assume you're going to be good at it at school because your last name is champion. So, I really felt the weight of that last name. And this is how, again, I guess my ism I self and me shows up was I was in the third grade, and I walk in the first day of school and the teacher's reading off the roster of kids, I guess what, there's three other Greg's in the class.

[00:19:10] Gregg: So, I'll be the fourth grade. And I G I go, this can't happen. I cannot be the fourth Gregg in this class. And so, I go home to my mom, and I go, mom, I go to were to change my name to Mark. She's like, no, no, Mark's my high school boyfriend. We can't, we can't how much Steve? No, no, no. And I started giving her options because I want to change my name. and so, she goes upstairs, and it happened to me. It's a Monday. So, Monday night football's off and I'm watching the game and local holders is tight end for the, for the Washington Redskins. And his name comes up after making catch. And his name is Gregg, and he spells it G R E G G, whoa, get down here, get down here.

[00:19:46] Gregg: She comes down. I go, we're going to do that. We're gonna do this. She goes, what, what are we doing? We're going to add an extra G she goes, okay, go ahead and next to it. And an extra G. So, the next day, and therefore on, I put the Gian and I've had the double G no Snoop Dogg reference here, but I had the double G since the third grade.

[00:20:05] Gregg: And here's the craziest thing. And again, this is my ism. I go to a first job interview at this, at this TV station. I mentioned earlier, and I'm sitting in front of my, my boss and he's like, Hey, what's up with the double what's up with the double G on the end. And I tell him that story. And he says, so you don't think champion would make you stand out enough?

[00:20:22] Gregg: Right. Okay. Now I felt the pressure of this last name for a long, long time. And then what happened was, as I got later into my recovery, not just sobriety later in recovery, I became a great mentor to young people to help get them their jobs. I became a great employer to show people how to do it. I started teaching at USC.

[00:20:42] Gregg: I definitely sponsored a lot of guys in 12 step programs. And all of a sudden, I began. Realizing that that I was living into my name champion, but not as a winner or a Victor, but if you look up Webster's dictionary's second definition of champion, it says someone who champions a cause or as a mentor.

[00:20:58] Gregg: And so, my it back, my superpower is my last name. I'm living into champion your cause or mentoring you in life. And that's, that's, that's what Tracey was alluding to. And so, I live into it. I love it, you know? 

[00:21:12] Tracey: That's amazing. I think, to start, it must've felt like so much to live up to, but at the same time, it's almost like it inspires you to do so.

[00:21:21] Gregg: I've had bank tellers say, can you adopt me? You know, like, because they have a really crazy last name, like please just adopt me, you know, that kind of thing.

[00:21:29] Gregg: Kelly, why you so quiet? 

[00:21:31] Kelly: I am just taking it all in. I love your story. I always love the, would you call them coincidences or, 

[00:21:38] Gregg: you know, 

[00:21:40] Kelly: yeah. God shots. Oh, that's just incredible. And the pain shame, trauma, and drama. I bet you, every single person that struggled with addiction would just shake her head. Yes. At that. 

[00:21:52] Gregg: Well, there's a great Canadian doctor up there named Dr. Gabor. Matay right. He's the godfather of what I just talked about. Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:22:02] Kelly: Really good. 

[00:22:03] Tracey: Well, I know Mike would probably relate to your little voice in the jail cell there because Mike always refers to that little voice in your head. the one that was telling you to call your mom. Yeah. And Mike could also relate to trying everything because I know in Mike's own journey, he's been opened to try lots of things that you probably wouldn't have tried before. Right? Mike? 

[00:22:23] Mike: No. So, I've just listened to you talk, Greg. And I'm like, from dealing drugs to experimenting with all sorts of drugs, booze. I never went to jail, thankfully. But there's a lot. We have a lot of similarities. And yeah, it's quite a story. And I think, whenever I speak to somebody just one-on-one and they asked me about, you don't drink or et cetera, et cetera. And I always find that they're always listening. Like we listened to you with. You share your story, but when, when they're listening, it's like, you're hoping that I don't know if you're hoping what you’re probably hoping that something just kind of resonates with them. And maybe at a certain point in time, they'll either recall the story that you shared with them, or their voice will almost turn on. If I could use that. I shared in past episodes on my own episode because we all did our own episodes to start the series off. I used to go to this bar religiously. It's where I would congregate with my buddies. And towards the end of the night, it was always the voice was there. It's like, are you tired of this yet?

[00:23:30] Mike: Are you tired of this yet? Tomorrow, tomorrow I'll tomorrow. And I, I just kept getting tired and tired and tired. And then one day I just, I had it off and I woke up. That's it I'm done. I can't do this right now. It's just not, it's not getting me to where I want to go. And I'm an entrepreneur like, you and I knew that I needed to make some changes and it just kind of starts from there. And I think everybody's got their own starting point or breaking point or low point hype, whatever you want to call it. It's, something gets ignited in you. And I definitely can resonate with the God, the God or the universe or something is drawing you. I firmly believe that something is, is pulling you in the direction that you so desperately want to go yet. You keep putting these roadblocks up, that, stop you. I don't know if you've ever seen the movie called Celestine prophecy, where. This guy in very, very short, this guy is going on this journey, and he keeps coming to this fork in the road. And then he comes back to the fork in the road eventually. And instead of going left, he goes right. And then that kind of takes him down the right path. So, I always kind of use that in my mind to say, you know what, I've gone down the day. I've left that two weeks times. And it's amazing. And I have to, I have to add this. Thank God you, I don't know if you'd like the Washington Redskins, but man, they are my favorite team. They always have. So, I'm glad that finally they got mentioned in the podcast. Sorry. A little off. 

[00:24:58] Gregg: Yeah, no, my actually my dear friend from high school, Kenny's MPC is your, is your quarterback's coach. Oh yeah. 

[00:25:04] Mike: Okay. Yep. That's hilarious. 

[00:25:06] Gregg: That's he? And he's going to do good with that with your quarterbacks there.

[00:25:09] Mike: Well, I hope so. The girls are going to get bored, like, okay, this is what a sports podcast

[00:25:13] Mike: today. I have drunk many beers in tears, just on every damn Sunday, getting ridiculed. Why do you cheer for that team? The losers and everything, but there's that we can do our own podcast on that. 

[00:25:26] Mike: Yeah. Yeah. We'll, we'll do a sober, sober sportscast. 

[00:25:31] Kelly: I have a question or maybe a ask for you to share what you shared with us before we hit record about how you got sober with the 12-step program, but you took a. Beyond that. 

[00:25:45] Gregg: So, I will definitely say that the 12 steps of alcoholics anonymous was a great foundation for me. I worked the steps. I definitely had a spiritual experience. I worked with others. I definitely found that the big book did help me in terms of again, roots and foundation. But I would say that I I've come to a crossroads in my life where we're AA just was not capable of helping me. And so, when people say, hey, Greg, how do you have 27 plus years of sobriety? I say, I have 27 years of recovery. And the way I got there was I remained, willing to be willing. And like, you heard my story before, which it was Greg's will. Well, I'm the opposite. If Tracey tells me, hey, listen, you will sleep better tonight.

[00:26:27] Gregg: If you stand on your head for 80 seconds, I'm going to stand on my head on 86, as soon as we're done with this. Because with the same vigor, I would try a different drug or pill or whatever I do with what you're mentioning here. And what I want to say is what's kept me sober. And in recovery beyond alcoholics anonymous is I took a friend of mine, calls me up 10 years ago and he goes, hey, I'm gonna start teaching breath work class, where you come down to this yoga studio.

[00:26:52] Gregg: And 10 years ago, I discovered breathwork and it's a big part of my life. Now, five years ago, my business partner says, hey, you got to get poked by the needles, get some acupuncture. Well, I get acupuncture. I've gone on silent retreats. If you guys tell me to read a book and I always say, hey, you gotta read the four agreements, man, search for meaning the power of now, these, these are books, I would suggest so if you guys suggest a book to me, I'm going to read it. And, and the reason being is LD to it specifically. So, my wife and I were separated a few years ago. And what I could tell you is that there wasn't a man in my AA meetings who was 50 years old with a coffee cup in his hand, who was going to be able to heal my marriage. And so, when someone said, hey, listen, you may want to go to a marriage counselor.

[00:27:31] Gregg: You're going to need a referee. And here's the best advice this advice did come from. Somebody said, so when I went to the marriage counselor, she goes, look here, listen. Here's what school she actually happened to be a double winner. She was an AA and an Alanon. So, but she also had the clinical degree on the wall. She said, this, he goes, Greg, you got to do the work. Your wife's going to do the work and you gotta do the work together. It's a three-legged stool. And I think that's the greatest advice you could give to any couple who is struggling in a relationship. I did not get that advice in the rooms of alcoholics anonymous. I got it in an eight-by-eight therapist room, and I got to tell you, I was against couples therapy, couples’ therapies for weak men. Oh, men that go there, a bunch of whips, all they do is they get, they get brow beat by their wives in the, in the counselor, because that's what we would see in movies and TV shows.

[00:28:14] Gregg: And yes, the first six sessions you do get your ass into to it. I would tell you no, but it's a process. It's a process. And one of the great things that came out of that marriage counseling was I had some secrets to tell. I had some childhood secrets to tell that my wife didn't know she had some childhood stuff and that came out and guess what, when all that was out, the healing could be.

[00:28:37] Gregg: I want to reference this. I referenced this early Kelly that a big part of one thing I do as I do pray and meditate. When I first got an alcoholic anonymous, step 11, it says we got to pray and meditate. Well, I read it as we got to pray or meditate because when I first got into alcoholics anonymous and recovery, that the men I saw meditating had ponytails, I wore tank tops.

[00:28:59] Gregg: And I was like, okay, that's not me. And then this guy was speaking from the podium, and he says, you know what I do every morning, I meditate. Then I pray. Remember I'm going to try something new every time I hear it, I went back to my hotel room, and I was at a meeting on a business trip in San Francisco back to my hotel room.

[00:29:14] Gregg: And that morning I meditated in prayer and that's the way I do it. Now I do a guided meditation. I usually do the Depok Oprah Winfrey 21-day meditations. This adds kid needs that needs, needs over talking to them. Right. He needs to be handed off to Deepak Chopra. Right. And he gets me in with this Hindu and I got a mantra and I'm gone for 20 minutes.

[00:29:34] Gregg: And then once I'm relaxed, I'm like, okay. And one of the prayers I do as I do the Saint Francis prayer, and I want to share it with you four, because the four of you told me he didn't know it, but I want you to hear it tonight. It's a quick prayer. Let me read it to you. Okay. Here we go. Lord, make me a channel of your peace, where there is hatred that there'd be love, whether there is injury that there'll be pardoned, whether it's doubt that there be faith where there's despair, let there be hope. Whether it's darkness, let there be light. And whether it's sadness, let there be. Grant that I may seek rather to be consoled and to console, to be understood and to understand, to be loved as to love for it is by giving that we receive it is by pardoning that we are pardoned. It is by dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen. 

[00:30:18] Tracey: Amen. Thanks. Great. Beautiful. Thank you. 

[00:30:22] Gregg: And I love that prayer because what I feel for the five of us on this podcast is the left hand stands or the darkness. The despair was where we were in our disease and where we are in recovery, whether we have one year, or 27 years is in the light. And in the hope, we're walking St. Francis. 

[00:30:39] Kelly: Yeah. 

[00:30:40] Lindsey: I feel like secrets have the most power in the dark. Right. And when you bring everything to light, you start sharing and talking to other people, you really realize you're not the only one struggling or dealing with something like this. And you take away, you literally rip that power away from those shame filled secrets.

[00:30:59] Gregg: So, we unpack the backpack of shame. 

[00:31:02] Kelly: Yes. 

[00:31:04] Tracey: Sorry, one question I wanted to ask you when you were talking about you and your wife, were you and your wife married when you had your issues with addiction? 

[00:31:14] Gregg: No, no, 

[00:31:15] Tracey: no. Okay. So, she's only known sober Gregg, 

[00:31:18] Gregg: she's known sober Gregg using it. I was not the first alcoholic in her

[00:31:23] Tracey: hmm. Okay. 

[00:31:24] Gregg: Her father, her older brother, her first husband, but they were active alcoholics. Wow. And that was kind of the epiphany she had to realize because what the therapist said to her, I said, look, you can divorce this guy, but if you don't go do the work, you're just going to marry another alcoholic. And that's what we do. We repeat the same mistakes over and over again, for sure. Mike's going to book his plane flight tomorrow to get his ass out of here. So

[00:31:50] Kelly: I want to hear about your treatment center. So, tell us about. Yeah. Tell us about some of your other endeavor, 

[00:31:57] Gregg: allowing me to talk about this. So, it's not a treatment center. What we found was that it was really nice treatment centers in Malibu and Utah and Arizona, but there wasn't nice sober living. It wasn't a place you could go for 90 days. It wasn't a place that really took care of you but integrated you back into life. And so, five years ago, my partner, Jeffrey van, and I, we came up with the idea and this is what happened. He was going through rehab did 90 days, and they taught him around all the sober livings in Los Angeles. He's like, I'm not going to sleep in a bunk bed. I'm 46 years old. I look, I share a room. And so, what we did at the, okay, all the amenities are going to be really, really nice, but then we're going to have substance. And at that time, I had made the switch from working in media as an executive and as a producer of TV commercials and promos.

[00:32:42] Gregg: And I made it over to becoming a recovery coach. And I started this company called Startup recovery. The reason being is I feel that all my clients are like start-ups. They need a mission statement. They need a board of directors. They need a 10-page pitch deck. Right? And they all are different, ideas that need to be launched.

[00:33:01] Gregg: And so, we named the company, Startup recovery. Our tagline is shifting addiction to passion because this is what happened for me. I came to Los Angeles in 1997 and I was a young up and coming Hollywood person didn't know what I wanted to do, but I knew my friends were still drinking and using, and they would go out on Thursday nights and go out on.

[00:33:19] Gregg: And they'd wake up on a Saturday morning, all hung over and I was sober. And what I ended up doing was using that time on Thursday nights to write scripts, to write treatments to do research from eight to midnight, those four hours. And on a Saturday morning, I'd go into the office, and I print those scripts out.

[00:33:35] Gregg: I pack the packages and write the emails and work till noon because I knew my, my friends were hung over till noon. And what happened for me when I did those eight hours, times 52 weeks, my career took off. And so, a big part of what I believe in is that my coaching, which is called the recovery playbook is about I'm sober now, what?

[00:33:53] Gregg: Right. And can I give you some life lessons or some mentorship or some coaching or some direction, but what I want you to do is I want you to shift your addiction to your passion. And so. What happened for me is I became a workaholic and I'm okay with that because it's paid off for me. But I've also rediscovered passions that I used to, like when I was 8, 9, 10 years old, because I ask all my clients, what do you do for joy before drugs and alcohol?

[00:34:15] Gregg: And I would ask you for what'd you guys do for joy before drugs and alcohol, we'll go do that because that will bring you to natural joy that you, that you love before drugs and alcohol. And so, I just shared this with you. When I grew up in San Diego, I loved the body surf catch the waves. I love to skateboard, and I love mint chocolate chip ice cream from Baskin Robbins.

[00:34:37] Gregg: Okay. So now I'm a man in his fifties and I have two kids. Guess what we body surfed together. We skateboard together. And this past Sunday, I took him to Mitchell. I took him the basket Robins for mint chocolate chip ice cream, because those three things still bring me joy as if I was eight, nine or 10 years old.

[00:34:53] Gregg: And so, one of the things I would say, if I was coaching you for is, hey, go back. Mike, if you were on a little league team, find out, find out adult baseball team. If you guys were ice skaters, ballet, if you did computers, whatever you did go do that, that joy is still there for you. a big part of what we do at Startup recovery is we want you to, I coach you in five lanes, career recovery, passions, self care, and a legacy.

[00:35:19] Gregg: Yeah. And so, I have three houses up here in the Pacific Palisades. We do, we cater to a C-suite executives, professionals, and millennials was, some money we allow for executives and professionals to push the reset button on her life something went awry along the way.

[00:35:38] Gregg: And what's funny is I'll get somebody on my coach, Kelly, and I'll be like, so what do you want to be when you grow up? What are we, what do I want? If I'm a CEO of a company, I go, you want to be on my couch if you were growing up. Okay. And for the millennials, it's a failure to launch. I'll get a dad to say, get this kid off my credit card and get them off my couch.

[00:35:57] Gregg: And I told you, like, I'm a good mentor. I'm a good hiring manager. I'm a good coach. And I have a real good way of connecting with gen Z and millennials to get them out in the world. And a lot of times I, I would say this, our parents have done great failures with a lot of, a lot of kids. They didn't teach them how to work.

[00:36:16] Gregg: There was no paper routes. There was no working at an ice cream store retail. And then we tell them to go to college, right? Get the degree, I'll take care of everything. And then at 22 years old, we tell them to go work. The kid looks back and goes, I've never worked. And guess what? He looks on Instagram and sees his friends, working, having money, right.

[00:36:35] Gregg: Having some sort of value pat on the bed. And that's when they go, oh, well I better go use drugs and alcohol to medicate. And what's really scary about today's drugs and alcohol is I smoke. I did a few lines of Coke, and I drank the pills that are out there. Now, these kids are, it's unbelievable. What's going on. And it's really, really scary. 

[00:36:58] Tracey: We just had our youngest guest on 23 years old and he had a friend die at Was it 17 or 18? Yeah. From a fentanyl overdose. 

[00:37:09] Gregg: Yeah. Yeah. You're Downey down here. We call it accidental poisoning because what the 17-year-old probably happened was he went to go get something else and it was fentanyl, and he had no idea.

[00:37:22] Lindsey: Yeah. I think that's what he was saying. Wasn't he? That it was, they found out there was a whole bunch of stuff in his system when they did the toxicology. It was not good. Yeah. 

[00:37:34] Tracey: Yeah. I keep telling these guys, I just watched that dope. And I keep telling these guys about that. Just, I couldn't believe what everybody everybody is. So, eye opening, 

[00:37:44] Gregg: that's just realistic as it is. That's they, they hit a home run with that. 

[00:37:48] Tracey: It was insane to watch that, it's such a sad reality. Yeah. 

[00:37:53] Lindsey: So, I have a question for you, Greg. If there's somebody listening to this episode right now, and they're thinking about re-evaluating their relationship with drugs, alcohol substances, possibly eliminating it. What three things do you know to be true now that you've gone through your recovery journey. 

[00:38:18] Gregg: Okay. First and foremost, that if you're struggling, look at my look at my life, Greg plus drugs and alcohol equal’s jail. Okay. So, step one is power and powerless over drugs and alcohol.

[00:38:31] Gregg: My life has become a manageable, well, that was my story. And so, if your life is unmanageable, every time you go drink and use, right. And every time you go and get becomes worse, like the jail sentences become longer, or whatever that is, right. That's part one of going, okay. I have a problem.

[00:38:49] Gregg: Number two, what I've learned is the power of human connection. That to me about that. Okay. So, the power of human connection is that when all of us were in our disease, right, Tracey, was there a lot of people around or were you alone? 

[00:39:04] Tracey: No, I was alone. I was drinking 

[00:39:07] Gregg: for sure. Right. I see all the nods we were all alone.

[00:39:11] Lindsey: And so, the island to drink alone. So that's when I did my best drinking. 

[00:39:16] Gregg: Yeah. Boy, you, you, you probably were really fun by yourself? 

[00:39:19] Lindsey: Oh, I had the tunes Blair in, and I was watching Netflix. I don't know what the hell I watched. I couldn't remember anything the next day. Yeah. Oh yeah. And oh, 

[00:39:28] Gregg: and some of those texts, the ex-boyfriend's right, right.

[00:39:31] Lindsey: Oh brother. Yeah. That's when you got to pick up the phone the next day and be like, holy shit. Who did I message? What did I say? I don't remember.

[00:39:40] Gregg: Hey, so unmanageability. So, part two is human connectivity and there's a great Ted talk. I think you guys have seen this about the rat park, the British guy, and he talks to the opposite of addiction is connection. All five of us were alone in addition. Right. And when we go into recovery, It's boom. You're reconnecting with the humans and that's what keeps us in sobriety. And the last part of what I've learned in terms of someone's struggling is that it really has nothing to do with drugs and alcohol and alcohol or the solution to your problem.

[00:40:12] Gregg: Your problem, your problem is in here, you have some deep, dark secret, some resentment, some thing where you feel inadequate, and you've decided to use drugs and alcohol to fill that hole. And what happens is the body then takes over and goes, well, now I gotta become addicted to it because I'm like a lab rat and they tell you the lab rats die. All right. And so, I just think it's like unmanned, manageability being alone and having secrets.

[00:40:40] Tracey: That's good. Very good. So, do you want to speak a little bit, Gregg? About the recovery playbook? 

[00:40:47] Gregg: Yeah. Yeah. So, what are all, all four of you get your phones out and let's do a digital scrub. Ooh, Mike, put your phone out. 

[00:40:56] Mike: It's sitting right here after the whole. Yeah. 

[00:40:59] Lindsey: It's like, wait a second, 

[00:41:00] Lindsey: Kelly gets your 

[00:41:01] Gregg: phone out. 

[00:41:03] Tracey: Hold on. I don't have my phone. I have to literally get up together. 

[00:41:06] Gregg: All right. Good. Okay. So, I got three out of four. So, so what the, what the recovery playbook is, is 12 plays that I've developed. Again, going back to I'm sober now, what, and here's some of the names of there's the 10 intentions. There's unpacking the backpack of shame, the lies we tell ourselves there's the word of the year where I put a word on a post-it and you put it on your mirror and what's going to happen. That word is one of two things there happen either that action is going to decrease. Cause it's a bad action. Like procrastination. We want that to go down in time. Right? Grace was one of my words. I put it up there. I want that to expand. So that's, that's one of the plays we would do. I Do I think called them on. Which is five things I've discovered in the spiritual dens; the Oprah Deepak Oprah is part of that. I give you a, what it's called a seven and seven. It's a breathwork exercise that takes, we do seven deep breaths up and down. It comes out to two minutes and 50 seconds. Everybody's got two minutes at 50 seconds to do a breath work exercise.

[00:42:02] Gregg: And so, if you go look on up recovery or the recovery playbook, you'll see these 12 plays. And basically, I walk you through and all these things are, is, are tools. And, and Mike May like to unpack the backpack of shame and Kelly May like the 10 attentions, but guess what you guys get, you guys can pick and choose what you like.

[00:42:19] Gregg: So, the one I like to do with you guys is what I call the digital scrub. Okay. Now, Mike, I need you to go on your phone and that there's a woman's name there with a city attached as the last name you got to get rid of her.

[00:42:31] Gregg: 10 business and Tiffany here in Montreal. She's got to go.

[00:42:39] Gregg: You guy, cute guy on, on my American airlines flight. It's got to go Kelly, Steve from Santa Barbara. What about, what about do not answer

[00:42:53] Gregg: Tracey. Hey Tracey, if you have any frenemies and what I mean, when you're going through your phone, this is how it got started. And again, all my stuff that comes into the recovery playbook is not out of books. It's out of my life experience. And so, what happened happens, I was looking through my phone for a newcomer.

[00:43:08] Gregg: I want to take to a meeting and his name is. Right below mark was Marnie. No, Marney was this woman who broke my heart 15 years ago. I mean, I was in a fetal position for four days as calling my mother every 20 minutes and just a mess. Okay. And also, all those feelings of Marney came over me and I'm like, I'm married with two kids.

[00:43:26] Gregg: I haven't seen this woman in. Can I go in here and I started Tiffany from Vegas, had to go, and she was still at, and also, I had frenemies in there? I had this guy grant who screwed me over it in a business. I had this other guy Matt, who was, a volatile neighbor. Right. And all of a sudden began to Oregon.

[00:43:45] Gregg: I get, I don't want to have that Marnie experience again. So, Tracey what I want to ask you is going to your phone and do you have somebody who's a friend of me, someone who's posing as a friend, but really in your heart of hearts. Oh, 

[00:43:58] Kelly: we should do this on social media. Like go through you. 

[00:44:03] Gregg: So, the digital scrubs, three parts, we go through your phone, right. How to get rid of all those people. And here's the. I think about it. We take this thing everywhere, but I want that bad karma walking around with me. Right? I want the good karma. So, we do the digital scribble on the phone. Bye-bye they'll be going to your social media and Kelly. We get rid of the frenemies, that girl that you hated in high school, but somehow you said, okay to her friending you on Facebook, right?

[00:44:28] Gregg: We got to get rid of her. I'm going to be, he's got to go. And then last thing since we grown up and we are now professionals, we have to rebrand ourselves on LinkedIn professional profile that makes the world go, wow. I want to connect with that person. That's the digital scrub. 

[00:44:44] Tracey: Wow. That's good. 

[00:44:46] Gregg: You using your phone? I don't see you produce. 

[00:44:48] Lindsey: And one day there should be an annual occurrence that you do. 

[00:44:54] Kelly: Yeah. This will take too long here. 

[00:44:56] Gregg: Then I say, I say, I go, please just do 20 names with me right now. It's an hour coaching session. So, we have time. Right? So, people will go through and go tell me some stories. Oh, we got to get rid of this guy, this guy, this guy was a taxicab driver. I can't believe I slept with them. This is the stuff that needs to get out because what happens is it feeds the shame. Yeah, for sure is shame. We got to get the shame out of the phone, digital scrub. 

[00:45:24] Tracey: I love what you said there about the Marni girl, because it's like, almost like a trigger. 

[00:45:29] Gregg: Totally. Meanwhile, I'm grown up, got a mortgage kid. You can't affect me anymore, but you did. You did. Okay. 

[00:45:38] Lindsey: Crazy. 

[00:45:40] Kelly: Wow. 

[00:45:40] Lindsey: I feel that way about even certain celebrities and stuff. I had to unfollow a bunch of people on Instagram because I'm like, I can't continue to look at these images. You're just make me feel bad about myself. I can't do this. And yeah, by unfollow, lots of joy and peace, I don't even think about it, but it's crazy how those things really subconsciously affect you. 

[00:46:01] Kelly: Yeah. Or even the people that are posting really negative stuff, which I find mostly Facebook, but yeah. Yeah. I love that. 

[00:46:08] Gregg: And so that's the recovery playbook and you know, it's on digital forum. All of my clients get me one-on-one, which I think is a big part of why people come to start up recovery. And then what I hope to do is eventually publish a book. Called the recovery playbooks, or then they get a workbook. So, what we just did at the digital scrub, you would get pages and workbook and kind of all that kind of stuff. And try to set yourself free. 

[00:46:30] Tracey: That's awesome. 

[00:46:31] Lindsey: So, what it's all about, Hey, 

[00:46:33] Tracey: so, tell people where they can find you. 

[00:46:36] Gregg: Okay. Well, I know you guys brought up social media, so I do have my own handles, great champion. And it's Greg with two GG and I'm definitely there. I have a great assistant Josel who runs our, Startup recovery, social media. I definitely post there, and I have some really good insights. I try to post a quote a week from my own experiences on social and Startup recovery.com is the home site for everything. That's where you can find the recovery playbook. You can find the Startup apartment.

[00:47:07] Lindsey: I was like, how do I book my vacation here? I've looked at, it looked at your website. I was like, whoa, all right. 

[00:47:16] Gregg: And start, the Startup apartments are a really good place for people to go who have 90 days of sobriety and, and they, and they want to be in a sober community. They know there's no curfews, but we do what I call independent living of the guardrails. And so, you get to go to school, you get to go to work all that back in the lifestyle, but we have a case manager who onsite and is like a college RA and he goes around, and he he'll drug test. You he'll breathalyze you. And he'll room. Check ya and check your car periodically. And we do case management there at the Startup apartments. My whole goal in the Startup program is to get everybody to a year of sobriety. And the reason being a year of sobriety is this. You will have done New Year’s Eve sober. You will have done your purpose. You will have done when Marnie broke up with you, sober, you will have done, Hanukkah, maybe you, have a tough time with losing a parent and that date comes up and you've done that and if you could get a year of sobriety, I always tell all my mentees and my sponsees, this, you always say, Hey, what should I do in my second year? Exactly what you did in your first year. I keep it simple, stupid, 

[00:48:21] Kelly: great advice. 

[00:48:22] Mike: Hey Greg, do you know, or do you ever heard of a guy named Ryan Holiday? The daily Stoic? 

[00:48:27] Gregg: Yeah, of course. Yeah. So, I think he's out of Ohio. 

[00:48:31] Mike: I'm not sure exactly where he's out of, but what triggered me to ask you that is because. I'm a big I talk always about meditation. Number one, and ironically, what saved me, got me on a meditation was the dam, Deepak Chopra, and Oprah thing. Dude, I got an email once and I was like just flipping through emails. And I was in a really low place in my life, still drinking and partying. I started to meditate, and I still drank and stuff. But about, it took about three years till I finally said enough is enough. And I firmly believe that things like that, following Ryan holiday. I'm not on social media, but I always try to find things that would help me guide me and help me make decisions. So yeah, 

[00:49:19] Gregg: I think he; he wrote up the stoic, isn't he? The stoic. 

[00:49:23] Mike: Yeah. Well, his site, his daily stoic. 

[00:49:25] Gregg: Yeah. There's that daily stoic. Yep.

[00:49:26] Mike: Yeah. And he always talks about, the philosophy side of things like memento mori is as big as big thing. And yeah, I just, when you were talking, it reminded me of him and there's actually, there's one movie that I've referenced before on a previous episode. And I don't know if you've ever watched this, but this helped me this got me going early on about probably eight, nine years ago. The movie was called the mask we live in. And 

[00:49:52] Gregg: that's one of the plays I run on the recovery playbook. Really. I show my clients, both male and female, the mask you live in 

[00:49:58] Mike: it was the best thing I watched. And I had a buddy who had gone to jail twice for six months, dense for DUI. And I told him about that movie. And he's like, man, I don't know if he still drinks, unfortunately, but I know he wants to stop. He knows that he's the only thing that's going to make him stop. It's him. He always reaches out when he's in, low points and I listened to him, but at a certain point and say, you know what, it's up to you, you have to make this decision, you can call me all you want, but at the end of the day things like that, I think help people. And I think the more we bring up, guests like you and all your credentials, it is. Just astounding. We'll help people and that's why we do what we do with 

[00:50:43] Gregg: and Mike, the female version of that, movie's called miss representation. Emma AMA represent, 

[00:50:49] Tracey: we didn't know there was a female.

[00:50:52] Gregg: It was actually released two years earlier. Oh, wow. Wow. It's the same producers. And guess what? It's the female misconceptions, everybody's going to be beautiful and 

[00:51:04] Mike: I love it. I love it. I'll watch it. 

[00:51:06] Gregg: You'll love it. And what I do is I show all, I show my male plants, both of them, and I show my female class.

[00:51:11] Gregg: Well, because they got to learn about the other side, the other team's playbook. 

[00:51:16] Tracey: No, it's funny because Mike got us all to watch that documentary. We had watched it before. 

[00:51:24] Gregg: Right. You have to stand your brother or your father, boyfriend, your husband. Right? Right. 

[00:51:28] Mike: Well, I think it helps you. Understand people, right? It starts with understanding people and then we can go and look at individuals and if you want to break them down, that's completely up to you. You know what I mean? But at the end of the day, we've all got, like you said earlier, I don't know if you mentioned it on air or off there, but you say we all got problems, you know, like we all got problems. It's just all about how do we deal with these problems? Do we have the skillset to get us to the next minute? Never mind the next day. But the next minute, the next five minutes, and you've mentioned a couple of great things with breath, work meditation, et cetera, man, hopefully just one person hears this episode and say, 

[00:52:05] Gregg: you know, Mike, you brought up something. No one's life is perfect. And what I can tell you is that there's times I'm asked to speak in publicly, right? And on those mornings, the first thing that my first thought is I got to write the email and tell him I can't go. Wow. My first thought I just can't go. And then what you just said is it's not one day at a time. It's one minute of time. So, here's what it is. My little voice goes off. It goes, Gregg put your feet on the floor. Greg, walk into the bathroom, Greg, get in the shower, Greg, wash your hair. Greg, get in the car, Greg, go to Starbucks, Greg, drink your coffee. All of a sudden, I keep doing these little incremental things. And before you know it, I'm downtown and I'm speaking, and I'm telling my first thought is I got to write an email to say, I can't make it to this day. No. We love self-sabotage by the way, 

[00:52:59] Lindsey: don't we ever, right.

[00:53:02] Tracey: We love torture 

[00:53:03] Gregg: oh, I'll be back next week. We can talk about that.

[00:53:06] Tracey: Well, it is definitely hard to get rid of that negative self-talk although it dissipates, when you stop drinking, it's still there. And that's definitely, probably one of the biggest battles. 

[00:53:19] Gregg: Yeah. And, I really believe, like when they say be of service to others, it really is. It gets you out of yourself and that particular move by calling a newcomer or going to volunteer, or just calling an old friend. Here's what's crazy is I don't know about you guys, but when the depression comes over me, there's no reason for me to be depressed. It just comes over. Sits. You know, and I sit in it, and I go, what is going on? That's when I used the tools that have been given to me, I go pray and meditate. I get on the phone, go for a walk run. I got to use those tools. Here's, here's one of my, one of my all-time quotes. We do not have bad days with a bad two hours. And what we do in those two hours will dictate whether we have a bad day. And what I try to do in those two hours is get into action, get up and go to a meeting, go to lunch go to basket Robins for some comfort food. You don't walk on the beach, get sun, because what I realized is that storm clouds just passing and sitting and it's going to pass. And even when I get a flat tire on the, on the freeway, I realized I just need to get into action. Call AAA, get it fixed. Yes, there'll be an hour late. Right. But the old Greg used to do this. Oh, there goes my day. I might as well just go home to my one-bedroom. Pull the drapes pull out the potato chips and turn on Jerry Springer. And the reason why I would watch Jerry Springer because I've watched Jerry Springer, because I go, okay, those lights, those lights are really fucked up there

[00:54:40] Tracey: and you feel better about yourself. 

[00:54:42] Gregg: Totally. 

[00:54:44] Tracey: Well, we could probably talk to you for hours and hours, but unfortunately it is rather late here, and I know it's nice and early for you. Hopefully, you got dinner in before you met up with us, but this has been such a pleasure. We are so happy that you came on and talked to us.

[00:55:04] Tracey: Thank you for living up to the name of your podcast. 

[00:55:06] Tracey: Thank you. Yeah, you've really given us a lot to think about just kind of stroked our fire and gave us more motivation and You're amazing inspiration, all the things you're doing and thank you for pursuing this passion of helping other people.

[00:55:20] Gregg: And please it's an open invitation. Come see me when you can. I know. It'd probably be between November and March, but yeah. 

[00:55:30] Tracey: Yeah. We should all make a trip out there. 

[00:55:32] Lindsey: Oh, my goodness. 

[00:55:34] Gregg: Thank you again for inviting me on. And it's been fun. It's been great. And it's been great to connect with four new people in recovery 

[00:55:41] Lindsey: Totally. Thank you, Greg. 

[00:55:43] Tracey: Thank you. Are we got a great evening? 

[00:55:46] Gregg: Thank you guys. 

[00:55:47] Closing

[00:55:47] Kelly: Thank you for listening. Please give us a five-star rating like and subscribe, share on social media, and tell your friends. We love getting your feedback and ideas of what you'd like to hear on upcoming episodes of the laugh life podcast. If you yourself are living alcohol free and want to share your story here, please reach out.