Coffeez with Joe Shalaby - From The Streets to Healer ft. Richard Taite | Coffeez for Closers with Joe Shalaby

Episode Date: July 18, 2025

In this episode of Coffeez for Closers, Joe sits down with Richard Taite—an entrepreneur who went from addiction and homelessness to building some of the most respected luxury rehab centers in the country.Richard is the founder of Cliffside Malibu, Carrara Treatment Wellness & Spa, and 1 Method. But his real story is about turning pain into purpose—and using business as a platform for healing.We talk recovery, discipline, why most people never actually change, and what it takes to build a business that saves lives while still being profitable.If you’ve ever struggled with control, success, or staying grounded when life hits hard—this one’s worth your time.Top producers at E Mortgage Capital are earning more per deal—with faster closings, better tech, and no junk fees.👉 Learn more: https://join.emortgagecapital.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Most people who beat addiction walk away from the fire. But Richard Tate, he walked back in, scars and all. I get myself esteem. After losing 25 years to drugs and alcohol, he built one of the most elite treatment centers in the world. No debt, no partners, no compromise. It's not rehab. It's a return to dignity. And in a world addicted to shortcuts, Richard still believes in showing up.

He's helped over 10,000 people find their way home, and somehow he's just getting started. From the depths to the top, welcome to coffees. Oh, it's my pleasure. You only got one thing wrong. What's that? I've only had one exit. One exit. Okay.

One exit. But it was a big exit. It was nice. Yeah. It was nice because, although it may not be considered big, it was nine figures, and there was no debt and no partners. So it was a nice exit for me. And specifically in this space, tell the audience, why does that matter in comparison to other folks who are in this space who have had partners and debt?

Well, I mean, you go all in, right? I mean, that's how I do it. I go all in. So I don't want any feedback or, I mean, I know how this ends, right? I've done it before. So I don't want any feedback. I don't want any noise. I just want to be able to do what I want.

the deal. Love that. Yeah. Love that. Now, I like to start to show off with the same question I ask everybody. Now, you particularly, I am sure this question is very relatable. What's your morning routine? My morning routine? It's the same every morning. I wake up at five o'clock. Okay. My buddy Stewart wakes up at four, so he has me beat. But I wake up, I roll out of the rack before I do anything I meditate for five to ten minutes, depending on where I'm at. I'll jump in the shower. I always do my shaving in the shower. But what I really like to do when I get out of the shower is I turn on the cold water

and it just wakes me right up when I get out. I feel like that does something to me. It gets me going. Then I go down and work out right here in the gym. and then I take my vitamins and my medication and I come right into work. Nice. Now, that's a pretty regimented routine. And it's kind of like cold plunging, which is like the new fat.

I'm not doing that. I'm not doing that. So how are you staying in such great shape, you know? Is it diet? Is it consistency? It's important if you want your brain to work the right way. It's important to eat the right way. right so i eat one unit foods so what's a one unit food a steak a banana an apple right that's a one unit food

there's only one thing in it and that's it okay so if you can eat like that and get sleep and meditate and move your body and work out then you're going to have a good mental state If you don't and you don't take care of yourself, you're not. And then you can't operate at peak performance. You just can't. One unit foods, all three meals? Look, I do as good as I can, but I'm not eating processed meats. Okay?

I'm not having sugar. Okay? I have very little bread, okay? But I do it. Okay? Okay. What's important is consistency. That's what's important.

Yeah. So let me ask you, what was it that drew you to this space that you're in now? Well, I lost 25 years to drug addiction and alcoholism. This dog wants to come in, let him in. Or he's just going to sit there and do this. Let him in. Okay, he doesn't bark. I'm sorry, buddy.

What was the question? What drew you to the drug rehabilitation industry? Well, I lost 25 years to drug addiction, right? And I figured it out. So when I figured out how to get sober, I opened up a men's sober living. And then I realized very quickly that I was offering therapy, and they didn't like that. So I had to get my license. And I started my last place.

and that's how I got into it. So are you an MFT or did you get your therapy license? No, I never did. I never got my therapy license, but I'm probably the most over-therapized person on the planet. All of our therapists have between 10,000 hours of treatment experience and 30,000 hours of treatment experience. So I got that covered.

Now, your treatment centers are known to kind of dominate in the celebrity space. How did you gain that reputation? That's a great question. I built it for me, right? So my last place was considered to be the finest treatment facility in the world. But I wouldn't even smoke crack in it. I wouldn't. Okay.

This new place, is far in a way. Carrera is far in a way the best treatment center in the world. And it's not close. It's one of one. Okay? If you're an ultra high net worth individual

or a celebrity and you go somewhere else and you find out about Carrera, you're hating everybody. And that's how it was built. Word of mouth, not really like advertising, just like...

Well, I mean, people knew that I came back and I got rid of all my social media. When I sold my last place, I was done. And when I started, it was really hard. It's a different climate, and nobody knew I was back. Do you know how they found out I was back? How?

I got the cover of the LA Business Journal. And then I filled up like this, right? Because people know, you know, when you've given back over 10,000 people to their families and loved ones, they know who you are. It's just I was gone for five years. Now, that was then. Now you're like, you're podcasting, you're building your brand, you're out, you know, you totally changed the landscape of how you're doing things. What is it that's inspired you to, like, build a personal brand and, you know, start a podcast. I don't have a personal brand. I don't have a personal brand. I don't look at it that way. This podcast, that

I do called We're Out of Time is not monetized. It's never going to be monetized. I do it because we're out of time. I mean, our children are dying and I'm a father. So I didn't want to do a podcast. I mean, I've never even seen a podcast or listened to a podcast ever. Okay? This was, I'm doing this because I can and because I'm a father.

And I think the worst thing in the world, the very worst, thing that could ever happen to anybody is to bury their child. I mean, I can't even, I can't even discuss it. Okay. So that's why I do it. That's why I do it. I mean, yeah, I got four kids and that I can't even imagine. How old are they? 11, 10, 5, and almost four at the end of the one. Yeah, well, you better have the conversation early and often. Okay. Conversation about? About drugs and about fentanyl and how it kills people. You know, when you and I were kids, we could do those drugs. We could experiment with drugs. It was a right of passage. These kids can't do that anymore. Yeah, they're right. They're all dying. And you're a kid, you think

you know everything, right? And your frontal cortex isn't even fully developed. So that's a bad combination. You know, it's almost like your brain isn't fully developed. So, you know, you've got brain damage almost. But you think you know everything. I mean, it's the worst combination in the world. And so you've got to have that conversation man early and often. When do you have that conversation? I have not had that conversation about drugs. The school has. They obviously know that the school. No, no. Forget the school. That's not your, they're your kids. Yeah. Okay. You have to have the conversation and you have to have it by 10. What I want to do, what I want to do is I want to, and I'm close. We're going to get there. We're going to make certain that in every public school in the

country, everyone, okay? They see a video twice a year, okay, in every grade, starting in kindergarten, and these videos will be made for that age group. And first semester and then at the beginning of the second semester. And we're going to put together these films on the evils of drugs and how dangerous they are now, how it's just a non-starter. Because when you get these kids young, they're conditioned. And they don't even know why they believe it. They just know it's part of their DNA. And that's how you start dealing with this thing.

It's one of the like 12 steps that I've created to really deal with the fentanyl issue. And it's not perfect yet. So it'll be done complete by the end of this month and then hand it off. to the right people to make change. You know, I don't know if this is serendipitous or this is just like fate, but I had a conversation about someone, about this specific subject

with someone less than 12 hours ago. Like talking about how he lost 15 friends in the last year to Fetno. Oh, I want that guy on my podcast. I'm not kidding. Yeah, like it's just unreal. And he's someone, because, you know, when you and I were young,

we've probably had a great time. And it's someone who, you know, when I was young, I started, in my book, one of my earliest ventures was I was throwing parties and after parties, like as a kid, that was my first business at 15 years old, and everybody was obviously doing drugs, right, at that time. And it was pretty much like standard practice. You go to a rave, you go to a nightclub, you go to an after hours, you know. That's right. And that, that was normal. Now you, you go to these things, and I was actually, I live in Newport Beach on the beach, and I was walking on 5th of July, and I said, and I said,

see just paramedics everywhere and a party ended and a kid in like what I thought was a body bag. I'm like, are you kidding me right now? This is a party. Fifth of July, Fourth of July. Like, something happened here and it looked terrifying. You know, and that kind of stuff, you didn't see stuff like that when I was young. No. No, you didn't. And, and it's a crisis. It's a crisis. It's one of the reasons I came back. Okay. Because, you know, if you can deal with something like this, Right? And save even a hundred parents from losing their child. I'm sorry. I'm going to be very proud of that. Very proud. I mean, look, I couldn't get through it. Losing a child, could you? No way. There's no way. So this is, that's why I do what I do. You know, I'm the worst at business. I'm the worst. But you've made a fortune in business. Well, sure, because I've hired the right CEOs. I mean, I'm the worst CEO in the history of the world. And I'm not being self-deprecating.

I suck. Okay? So the first time I hired a guy who is good, this time I've got the single finest CEO in our industry. Everybody tries to steal her. Everybody. She ain't going anywhere. Okay? Because she knows where the love is.

That woman's my workwife. She does everything. She makes it so that I don't have to hear any noise and all I have to do is focus on what I have to do as the executive chairman. And I've never had that before. This is new. How have you been able to hire that kind of high-level talent? Oh, that's a great story. At first, we hired Corn Ferry.

Now, Corn Ferry, as you know, is the biggest headhunting firm in the city. the nation and luck of the draw i ended up with the head of the health care division so we became close and then he um before he even found me somebody the first time um he referred me his uh who did he refer me he referred me his godson and he was really worked up about it He was really panicked. And he asked me how much it was going to cost and everything. And I said, your money's no good here. Just bring me the boy.

Don't worry about it. And so he brought me his godson and he's never drank again. And he got well real fast. And then he was on it. Then he drank the Kool-Aid. Then he knew that, you know, we were different than others, right? And so he went ahead and found. me the perfect person. It was like he had religion. And then this time around, he called me

a year and a half early and said, should I start looking for a CEO? And I said, no. And I would not let him start until the day my non-compete ended. Right? I wanted to be in complete compliance with it. And he found me this new person, her name's Candy Henderson. And, and he found, she talks like this, she's got that Alabama draw that's just gold. I just love her. So it was personal for him to help you. Yeah. So what do you think is?

My life is completely personal. It's completely personal. People, I believe that people work with people that they like. Okay. And I'm only going to work with good souls and I'm only going to work with kind people, talented people. That's it. That's one of the secrets to success for sure. for sure.

What is it that makes your treatment center different other than the aesthetics? Yeah, well, obviously it's the nicest treatment center there is and we've got a full spa, a world-class spa inside of the treatment center. And people thought that was a vanity play and it isn't. I believe that self-care turns into self-esteem, which turns into self-love. And I have never ever met an alcoholic that truly loved themselves trying to kill themselves with drugs and alcohol. doesn't happen. But what makes us different is we give you whatever you need. And other places

have a program. We've got a program too. Think of it like college. Okay. You've got your general education and then you go for your major, right? So we expose everybody to everything and then we go, okay, babe, what do you like? What do you gravitate to? And as long as it's positive and it's something that they gravitate to. It's something they can take with them outside of the center. So we want to find something that really works for them. Another thing that makes us different is I have a client care department. So I have people literally walking around the centers, looking for the person with their head and their hands, right? Roll up on them and take care of them right there. Nobody does that because it's not cost effective, right? And a

especially in this climate. See, when I was here the last time, we had 18,000 treatment centers. Now we've got under 10,000. So how do you lose half the treatment centers in seven years? When there's more drugs and alcohol than ever. That's right. How do you do that?

Well, I'll tell you why. It's an excellent question. The reason is because insurance companies used to pay 67 cents on the dollar, and now they pay 25 cents on the dollar. So if you're working at a 25% margin like most of these companies are, you're broke. Now you're failing. And that's why they're all failing.

But here's the good news. I'm glad that I jumped into this thing without knowing the climate. I'm glad because it's been scary. I'm not going to lie. I've been scared. But I want it hard. I want it hard. Okay. I want to know who I am. I want to know if I can succeed when everybody else is failing and I'm doing it.

All right. Now you charge $165,000 a month for Carrera. Right. How do you guys, how does, you know, Carrera is, is the first luxury center for UHNW clients. How do you justify opulence or recovery without romanticizing all the privilege? I like to roll. manacize the privilege. Why not? These people have big lives. They're not entitled to get sober, too. Look, people say to me, well, Rich, you didn't go to a fancy rehab. Well, yeah, that's true. Okay. But I wasn't the guy I am today. Okay. I would have never gone into a treatment center today that was substandard. I never would have done that. Okay. So I'm not entitled to get sober? right? I mean, look, you have to work with people. You have to be able to give them what they need and work around their lives.

It's just, that's the way it is. Sobriety is not its own gift, no matter what people say. Okay? If you don't have the, sobriety is about thriving in the world. It's about creating a better life. life than you had. And if you can't create a better life for yourself than the one you had on drugs and alcohol, you're going back to drugs and alcohol. That's just the way it works. Now, insurance covers only a small percentage of this. But from my understanding, you guys are only, like most people are cash buyers, are paying cash for this. They're not even leveraging insurance at all. Well, we offer that opportunity. I mean, I've got a revenue cycle management department, so that way people don't have to come up with the whole thing.

I mean, some insurance companies pay 30 grand a month, some pay 60. Okay. So we'll offset that for them for sure. Okay. But even six figures a month is still insane for a normal layman. It is. It is. So we're not advertising to the average guy.

We're advertising to about a quarter of a million people in the United States. but I have an affordable treatment center. Okay. So for 250 or 500 bucks a month typically, you get 30 days of treatment. And 80% of my staff at Carrera works at my affordable center. Okay. So they're getting the best care anywhere in the world using their in network insurance policy. Where is that center?

That's it. That is, that is, okay. So you know how Carrera is one of one. It's the nicest ultra-luxury treatment facility in the world. It's actually the first ultra-luxury treatment facility in the world. So my affordable place, normally these types of centers have bars on the windows and they're in rough areas of town. This is a nine iron from Cheviot Hills Country Club.

So it's not the most luxurious, but they're three, four million dollar homes. So these guys are living really nicely in a comfortable space to do some really uncomfortable work. And that's what this is. Yeah, I'm sure it's not bad. The way looking at you, talking to you, like it's probably still really nice. No, no, no. The guy who owned it before, I bought this one. And the guy that owned it before advertised it as a luxury treatment center.

Now, for me, that ain't luxury, okay? But for some people, okay, it's magnificent. They're like mansions. Okay. And I think it's important when somebody comes into treatment. Look, when you go to a, I've been in a motel six and I've been in a four seasons. And I can tell you that I felt better in a four seasons than I did in a motel six. Okay.

Now, when I was homeless, the motel six was the four seasons. Okay. So it's all contextual. It's all perspective. That's right. Better word. Yeah. Yeah.

So your model serves the elites, but you're committed to veterans and in network care. How do you balance exclusivity and accessibility? Oh, it's easy. Okay. There's like Candy is my CEO. And she is a specialist. at scaling so that we can treat as many people as humanly possible. Carrera is not that.

Carrera is never going to be more than an 18-bed boutique facility. Okay? Candy, although she deals with the operations of Carrera, for sure, she's almost exclusively dealing with the affordable center because that is why I hired her. I hired her to make certain that we could treat a thousand of the military veterans and people with HMOs. These are the people who I wanted to help this time. The problem is, is I don't know how to do anything on a budget like nothing.

Okay? I may have to raise the prices at Carrera because, you know, we're full and we're not making anything. because we give you whatever it is you need. I mean, I don't care what it is. This guy lost his parents just recently. At Carrera? At Carrera. And he came in.

He was all bent out of shape. And he was having a real hard time. And I was talking to him, and I realized what he would benefit from mostly is a grief and loss professional. So I called one of my best friends who is the number one hospice nurse in the country and who does this kind of thing. And I said, will you work with this kid? And he said, absolutely.

And when this kid left, he stayed for about 60 days, maybe 90. But when he left, he was a new guy. And he was hugging me and telling me how grateful he was to have been here and how, how it changed his life. When you go to Carrera and you spend 30 days, that's like getting three years of therapy. So how are you after three years of therapy? Are you the same guy? No, not even after one, two sessions.

I mean, you know, opens my perspective. That's right. One thing I'm personally curious about is, you know, your marketing strategy, you're marketing to 250,000 people. Right. Not a big demographic. How do you target that demographic? Well, that's hard.

And I'm not going to tell you. That is my secret sauce. That's, hey, bro, this is what I do. This is, this is, I'm only motivated. I suck at business and I failed at everything. The only thing that I can get my head around, the only way I can wake up in the morning and get out of bed is if I'm helping to solve a social problem.

Okay. Other than that, I'm not a widget salesman. I don't know how to do this. All I do is I do the best I can to leave this place better than I found it. That's how I operate. One thing I'm impressed about is your skills as a closer. I mean, like you're closing people on a couple hundred grand a month. Coffee's for closures.

That's right. Well, it's not hard to close anybody if you tell them the truth, right? And the truth is if they're calling me about their kid and I say, well, how many kids you got? and they're like one. I'm like, oh, well, then you better get this right because you're going to have a lot of pain. Okay. Look, I'm so in love with my children.

I'm going to tell you a story. You're going to love this. We were at my daughter's graduation from preschool. And I go in and the teachers, they're all hugging me because we're all very close. and the lady that ran the school looked at me and she said, you know, we used to laugh at you because you thought you loved your kid more than everybody else loved their kid. But then we got to know you and we realized, not only do you love your kid more than anybody else loves their kid,

a lot of times you love their kid more than they love their kid. when you have a child as late in life as I did and you think you were and you thought you were going to miss it and you finally get it it's the greatest thing in the world and to have children late in life means I appreciate it more right and it's scary because you know we end up kissing God's ass all the time just get me to where they're okay in the world without me that's it and those are my prayers. God, I didn't answer that question, did I? I forgot the question.

No, you know what? I talk about God and faith as we kind of close out the show, but, you know, like faith and trusting in God is a big part of my purpose. My whole purpose in life is just to do God's work. That's it. As long as we're wrapping up, I'll tell you this one story that will illuminate for you exactly who I am. because I don't think there's a better story.

I just wanted to start Carrera with a handful of people. Okay, we're gonna go slow and steady. It takes a lot to open up a treatment center. It takes six months of ramp up before you're even licensed and you're spending a fortune to do it, millions, okay? So I wanted to stay lean. But a guy called me and he was crying and he told me about how he didn't have money

for payroll and he owned this center called One Method Center. And I said, Wins payroll and he says 36 hours. And I said, well, how many people you got in your house? And he goes nine. Now, nine drug addicts, alcoholics, getting treatment and this guy can't pay his employees. And what happens when that happens is the employees take furniture and TVs and computers and they walk out of there leaving nine people, okay, who will never, ever seek treatment again because they can't trust it. So I went in there at 9.30 the next morning. And by 1230, I had met all the employees, the clients, saw all the locations, did all my due diligence, negotiated the deal, wrote up the short form, and had it all fully executed in three hours.

I was out of there at 1230 because that's how I do my, because that's how I do my due diligence because I'm such an adult. So I come back to the office and I tell the girls what I did and they just start packing their stuff. And I'm like, where are you going? They're like, oh, we're going to see what you just did. and they come back with the blood rushed out of their face. And they're like, you bought nothing.

I'm like, what are you talking about? They have no staff. I said, what are you talking about? I've met all the staff. Baby, you've been out of this a while. Okay? We have three shifts where a 24-7 business. That's the only shift they got.

They're completely understaffed and operating illegally, and we can't even take the money. And so I went like this. And I said, you people have no faith. Go home, it'll be fixed in the morning. And then I cried myself to sleep because I had no clue how I was going to deal with this. None. And I woke up in the morning and I'm shaving and I don't like to look at myself in the mirror

because who wants to see their grandfather? But halfway through, I just looked at myself and I said, everybody comes home today. and I called my old place, Cliffside, and I called 10 people, and I said the same thing to everybody. I'm sorry for the late notice, but everybody comes home today. And everybody said a version on the same thing. We're doing it again? We are. Okay, let me go give my notice and I'll call you back.

And 10 people within one hour gave their notice to a fully realized, fully mature business that was, the number one treatment facility in the world when I sold it. The number one, and the second most recognizable second to Betty Ford. And they all came. So then I tell the president of my company, I said, Aaron, do me a favor. Don't take anybody else. We need to stay lean. We're all going to roll up our sleeves. It's a startup. We're going to get this done together. Okay? She says, okay. 10 days later, she walks into my office and she says, they're calling. I said, who's calling? said the people from cliffside i said what do they want they want to know what's wrong with them they want to know why they can't come how many erin 14 well and i just started crying and i said take them all

and six followed and then one more and we had 31 people from the finest place in the world come right over making our place the finest in the world. That's all you need to know about me. Put it all in the line. I got a couple questions. A couple last questions. This one's about your kids. You know, you don't come from an extravagant, opulent upbringing, like your children.

How are you instilling that same level of grit and mindset? and growth perspective that you had coming from poverty into your children growing up in abundance? Well, that's all my ex. My ex is without question the best woman I've ever met and the best mother I've ever met. So much so that my daughter is now learning to drive. And I said to her, I said, hey, babe, have you thought about it? what kind of car you want. And she looked at me and she said,

I'll let you buy half my car. And I said, okay, where are you going to get the other half? And she goes, I'm going to get a job. What's wrong with you? Those are my kids. Okay?

My kids understand from a very early age that things don't matter. I don't do the things. Okay. Yeah, I got to. a nice watch, okay? I got one watch. Okay, that's, that's a lie. I've got two watches. Okay, that's a lie. I've got four watches. But the point- I'm stopping at four myself. You have for yourself? Yeah. But the point is I only wear one at a time.

My children understand that things don't matter. All they care about is time with their loved ones. And that's it. They want your time. Your kids don't care about money. They want your time. They want to play. They want you to get down on their level and throw the ball. They want you to be interested in what they're interested in because when you're interested in what they're interested in, they feel important and I don't have to treat them. No phone around the kid. Because then they're not important. This is how they're, you create agency in a child. That's great advice.

One thing I fell out, my kids have even called me on, is like, Dad, get off your phone. Get off your phone. Get down on their level. Dude, these are the only things that matter. Nothing else matters. It's all noise. The money doesn't mean shit.

Kids make you money. Because if I didn't have children, I wouldn't have sold my last place. I would have just been grinding out a living and doing whatever. because it would have been enough. But when you have children, you're scared. The world's getting to be a dangerous place.

You have to make certain that they're okay in the world when you're gone. That's what every father, every good father wants. That and for their children to be proud of them. And that means the way you live your life. Not what you have, but how you treat people. Treating, look, I love, I think that the best part of What I do is that I love the people that work for me. I don't just like them.

I love them. And they love me. Okay. That is how you run a boutique, finest in the world treatment facility where you're, do you know that our first hundred people were by invitation only? Wow. I don't know if that's ever happened before. You could not work here unless you were vouched for by one of the 31 that started this.

And when people ask me, Rich, I'm getting really busy. I need some help. Will you hire somebody for me? I go, no. Find somebody. You know everybody in this industry. Find the person you want to work with with a good soul. Okay.

And hire them. and they do that's how I operate two last questions this is a three-prong question oh well you better do them separately because I don't have that kind of memory what's a personal goal that you have for yourself

a family goal that you have for the family and then a goal that you have for your businesses okay the goal I have for myself and the business is the same oh no it's not the goal I have for myself is let me start with the kids first.

The goal I have for my children are to be like board members. I want them to know what we're doing as a family so that they can do it and live a certain way, right? There are rules that I didn't know about when I got my first bag that now I'm very clear about. Okay. And I don't want my children to make the same mistakes that I did. Okay. I think it's important that they're not given anything, that they earn everything. Okay. Because otherwise, they're going to donkey it off. Okay. And that'll be my fault. And I don't want to work my entire life to create a legacy where my kids understand their station. in the world and their core belief, which is we leave this place better than we found it.

Okay, we help people in our family. They understand. Tell you a great story. I'm driving with my kid and I see this woman at a bus stop, but she's not sitting on the bench. She's laying down on the floor and it's raining and she's got this blanket and all her stuff is all over the butt, the best bench. And so I look at my son, who's 10 at the time, and I go, babe, daddy's got to get out of the car for a second. I'm going to lock you in.

It's a tough neighborhood, right? He goes, no problem, Dad. So I get out. I look at this woman and I say, and I have only got like 300 bucks on me. So I take it and I want to give it to her. And she says, no, thank you. I'm mentally ill. I will just lose it.

And I'm like, I can't even breathe. My throat starts to close. And I said, it's yours to lose. please take the money and find a place to stay tonight please and she said i don't want the money the money's not my issue and so now i'm like a wreck so i got to straighten up so i don't scare my kid and i get in the car and after about a minute my 10 year old says as we're driving you're a good man daddy and i said thanks baby and then he says are you going to help that woman and I said no and he said then he waits and he's processing this because he doesn't get it and a

minute later or two minutes later he says hey dad I don't understand if you have a place that helps people why can't we just pick her right up off the ground and take her to your center from a 10 year old so that's when I called my buddy at corn fairy and I told him not to bring me some somebody who didn't want to do a thousand beds for people that really need it. He brought her to me because of my son. The purest form of honesty. Yes. And so simple.

He's just, these are my kids, man. My kids are not bad kids. My kids are good kids. You hear the voice of God from your kids. I don't understand that. Explain that to me. Because... You can't mention me and God in the same sentence without me questioning it.

Because kids, when they speak, they speak in a pure form. They speak in a form like a saint would be talking to you. Ah, so what you're saying is God used my kids as a vessel to talk to me. Yeah. For sure. For sure. One last goal. The last goal for your business.

for my business I thrive to do the right thing and really give my heart and my soul to every single person that walks in. So that is my thing. I get my self-esteem by giving people back to their families. That's how I get my self-esteem. It's the only thing I'm good at. That's it. I'm a one-trick pony. Okay. If I wasn't doing what I do now, I would for sure be living in a one-bedroom apartment in Culver

City, for sure. Okay. This is what I know. You know, and some people think I'm the best at it. But only because I care the most. People in this business don't typically care. Okay. The ownership doesn't care because they're not, they didn't have.

to walk the walk, right? But when you lose a quarter century to drug addiction, you feel part of, part of the solution. You know, the goals for me are just to do the best I can with this business and be the best father I can be. And those are my goals. I want to find out who I am this time around. I know who I was the first time. time around. This time I want to see if I can do it 10 times better. I want to know what it's like to be the executive chairman of a billion dollar health care corporation and still wear my pajamas all day long. I think that's bitch it. It is bitching. It is bitching. One last question. You've had a lot of last questions. It's the last one. All right. Now don't, I'm not, you ask as many

as you want. When you're in front of the pearly gates, what do you think God's going to tell you? He's going to be really proud. I have a joke. God, Jesus, and Moses are sitting there in heaven. And God says, see that kid, Richard Tate? I'm going to make him somebody. And Jesus and Moses go, I'll take that action. So yeah, he's going to be really proud. He's going to be really proud. Richard, you've been an awesome guest to have on the show. It's a thought-provoking conversation, really, really inspiring, change the world, you continue to inspire and help. And most importantly, you just pour your heart and soul into just your vision and helping

others and being of service and changing lives dramatically. If people want to connect with you, how do they find you? I'm Richard Tate official on all platforms. And what I really like is for everybody to check out. We're out of time, our podcast, because we're really proud of it. We're the number three mental health podcast in the nation right now, according to Apple. And it creates awareness around fentanyl, and it's a good time, too. So, yeah.

That's awesome. Thanks for having me. Thanks for it. I appreciate it. Thanks for being out of show, Richard. I appreciate it.