Digital Social Hour - Why Rehab Centers Don't Work & Going Completely Sober | Natalie Eva Marie + Chad Carlsen DSH #270

Episode Date: February 7, 2024

Natalie Eva Marie + Chad Carlsen come on the Digital Social Hour to discuss what's wrong with Rehab Centers, talk about their journeys to becoming sober and talk about some moments at the WWE. APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://forms.gle/qXvENTeurx7Xn8Ci9 BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail] SPONSORS: Opus Pro: https://www.opus.pro/?via=DSH Deposyt Payment Processing: https://www.deposyt.com/seankelly LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

And I just started sponsoring one of the girls in the program and she's only 28. And then this last year, eight of her friends have either died from fentanyl poisoning or and that's insane to me. Like eight, eight in one year, one year. Wherever you guys are watching this show, I would truly appreciate it if you follow or subscribe. It helps a lot with the algorithm. It helps us get bigger and better guests, and it helps us grow the team.

It truly means a lot. Thank you guys for supporting, and here's the episode. Welcome back to the show, guys. Got fellow podcast hosts here with me today. Hosts of the Hoopaholics podcast, Natalie Marie and Chad Carlson. How's it going guys? Really good. Doing great. It's Natalie Eva Marie and it's Hoopaholics. Hoopaholics is close, but it's... There is a Hoopaholics on YouTube. There is? Yeah. Every time you go type in Hoopaholics, it switches it to Hoopaholics. Ah. Interesting.

Are they big? It's a basketball podcast. Oh, that makes sense. So how did you guys get started with the podcast? I know there's a big mission behind it. I'd love to hear why you started it. Yeah, I'll answer that just because it's really close to my heart. A year ago, 9-11-2022, I got a phone call at 7.30 a.m. from my daughter.

And when I answered the phone, she was screaming. And that kind of scream when you know that somebody's dead. And she was just screaming, Justin's dead. And he died from fentanyl. We call it fentanyl poisoning because there's no safe dose of illicit fentanyl yeah and as part of the healing I decided that I'd be a voice for the people that no longer have their have a voice and for the families who can't get out there and bring awareness to this horrible epidemic I mean fentanyl is it's insane 300 people are dying

every single day so you know we're out there fighting that fight that's a lot of people is that in the u.s or worldwide u.s wow yeah that's cdc numbers so that's just what they're willing to admit yeah yeah exactly it's crazy yeah it was big where i grew up in jersey actually yeah really yeah east coast i feel like there was a lot of it over there i know it's crazy. Yeah, it was big where I grew up in Jersey, actually. Oh, really? Yeah, East Coast. I feel like there was a lot of it over there. I know, it's crazy. I just got back from Spain, and I was talking about it over there, and they couldn't believe it. Like, they hadn't even heard of it.

Yeah. So I thought that was interesting. And that's the one that's in ****, right? I know. Well, no, it's in pressed pills all by itself now. Oh, yeah? But you'll find it in ****. You'll find it in ****. **** means you'll find it in **** that you buy off of itself now. Oh, yeah? But you'll find it in ****. You'll find it in ****.

**** means you'll find it in **** that you buy off of the streets. Adderall. There's a girl that... So we just had a big TikTok star's dad, Cooper, Coop's dad, on the podcast yesterday. And he was telling us about a story of a girl like just studying for her finals at college and she ran out of her prescription at her also her friend had it and gave her one just to get through studying and it was laced and she ended up so it's literally in like recreational abuse is not what it was

like when I was like in my alcoholism at all. Yeah. You can't just try anymore. Yeah. It's not worth the risk. So why are they putting it in these? Is there like, does it help their margin or something? I mean, that's the question.

It's highly addictive. It's highly deadly, but now you're talking about a pill versus black tar that you have to cook up in a spoon, put in a syringe, and inject. So more people are willing to take this versus something scary like. But it's way more potent and way more deadly than. You really only need like the smallest amount. So I work at 12-step program and I just started sponsoring one of the girls in the program and she's only 28. And then this last year, eight of her friends have either died from fentanyl poisoning or committed. Oh, my gosh.

And that's insane to me. Like eight? Eight out of... In one year? In one year. That's terrible. And this hits deep for you guys because you guys both have your experiences with s**t, right?

Yeah. That's kind of how this all kind of came apart and I joined the Hopaholics and then... Shout out to today's sponsor, NoVPN, my personal favorite VPN. You can change your virtual location very easily with Nord with one click and sometimes even zero click if you want to have on auto connect. It's got amazing speed. It's probably one of the fastest VPNs out there in my experience. And you can use one Nord account on six devices to make sure the whole fam's taken care of. You can also use

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out guys affinity group and i'm really really grateful just because it's one of those things i i happen to come on as just a guest on their show and then we we hit it off and i know it sounds like cheesy but i it was suggested to me to to write and put things down that you would like kind of like a vision board type deal but um i hate saying vision board because i feel like it's so cliche yeah i'm just like i have one but i yeah i know what you mean i don't talk about it it just sounds so like weird um so i had wrote down i think don't know, maybe 10 years cause I have 10 and a half years of, uh, sobriety right now. And, uh, I wrote down that I've always wanted to own a recovery center as well as be, use

my platform in some type of way because I used to be in so much shame and, and like live a double life and not want to talk about working a 12-step program or uh that i was sober and and i've lived that like duality for a long time and then finally uh you know i kind of bit the bullet i guess you can say and was kind of like forced to go ahead and and tell my story on a reality show uh total divas and on wwe so that kind of put me out there just because it's powerful to have if i'm talking about all of my own nonsense and character defects then nobody can really use that against me right so um then i went on their show and we all hit it off really well and um they fell in love with my husband and they got stuck with me.

So now I'm one of the hosts of the Hopeaholics podcast. And it's really awesome. I think it's really important because I wish that when I was a lot younger, because my first time getting sober was at 23. And I feel like if I, who knows if this would have happened or if my life would have maybe went a different route but um just being able to talk about it or hear what's going on you know and seeing other people like sobriety doesn't have to suck it's not boring it's not like this woes me type of thing it's like

once you're able to take control and make the choice and you can have a life beyond your wildest dreams but i'm definitely a testament to that like i'm so grateful to chad to his wife donna like i absolutely love them and i just met them and that to me is like a god moment in my life so yeah sounds like you two are together for a purpose yeah for a purpose a bigger purpose. A bigger purpose. And, you know, I, 20, 22 years ago, when my daughter was born, I, is when I had a moment of clarity and I decided that to get clean. I almost died in a car accident five days before she was born. And I decided to get clean. And, you know, I was like, why did God leave you here? And I knew he had left me here not just to be a dad, but to help other people that suffer from the same thing that I suffer from. So I started working in alcohol treatment. Two years later, opened up my first treatment center called Hope by the Sea. It's 21 years old. And from that, we've spawned the Infinity Group, which owns seven other brands, including

we just opened up NEM Recovery Centers, which is NEM is always Natalie Eva Marie. So then that one literally opened two weeks ago. So we met, we got her as a host on the podcast, and we already opened a treatment center together. Amazing. So you're saving lives now. Saving lives, man. That is actually what we talk about all the time is we're just out trying to save lives. Yeah. Now, what's been both your experience with rehab centers, treatment centers?

I see mixed things about them. Are you fans of their whole business model? Well, I'm not fans of everybody's business model. A lot of people come in. I'm a fan of my own business model. Because I believe if you put client care first, all of your bills are paid. And most people come into the business because they think that they're going to make a shit ton of money. Yes, you can make money in this business. Not as much as you used to be able to, because the insurance companies

are the ones that are in control of how much you get paid. And they've really cut that off. Yeah. But if you're doing it for the right reason, then I'm a fan. I'm a fan. If you're doing it just for money, like let's say, I'm going to give you a quick example. There's an insurance policy that pays really, really well. We'll just say it's Cigna. I don't know if it is Cigna or not. You know, wink, wink.

And then you have a Blue Shield of California that pays really, really shit. And I have both of them in my program. If this guy breaks the rule, some programs will be like, keep him because that's a Cigna policy. But then if he's a detriment to other clients' safety, they'll keep him anyways. You can't. You can't treat somebody different based on their insurance policies. You have to treat each individual as an individual, not how much you're getting paid.

Right. And on my behalf, why I really was just so drawn to the entire Carlson family is because they've been in business for, I mean, 21 years is incredible. Right. My experience in rehab was absolutely terrible. One, I didn't, and that was just on me because I wasn't ready, but the facility and just like the care wasn't like I got to witness myself firsthand walking into Hope by the Sea and meeting the patients and seeing all

of the case managers, the nurses, and everyone cares about your growth and what you're doing. And it's really incredible to see. Plus, we also have, it's called Recover Out Loud, and it's a weekly meeting on Zoom for literally everyone. So we have parents that have lost kids from fentanyl poisoning come on because they need somewhere to get some type of, they need to grieve, they need to hear other stories. And it's like a place where everybody can kind of share openly as well as share what they're doing to kind of get out of that pain.

Because anybody that is either successful or that you want to have as a mentor, they've all gone through some shit, like everybody has. And being able to talk with like-minded people, it helps them continue on their days and become better. But what amazed me about and why I wanted to partner with them so much is because, piggybacking on what Chad said, there's been so many patients that log into this meeting and say, thank you, Chad, for keeping me because he'll sponsor somebody if they can't afford it. Or like he's saying, there's no favoritism based on insurance policy. It's based on the patient and if they really want to get better.

You know, there's some people that aren't ready and they want to leave and they leave because, you know, you can't keep anybody in like they're in prison. But that's what I thought was pretty beautiful because it's a disease that's people on a day to day basis. And if you are going into treatment treatment you should go into the best care possible for sure it's really cool to see you guys speak up about this because i feel like a lot of them are money driven yeah they care about just the dollars on paper you know and like my dad was an alcoholic and i saw what he went through he ended up in a psych ward and honestly he came out worse so i feel like a lot of people are coming out of these places worse because they're not being actually cared for

right right and that's a big deal because when you're going into treatment not only do you have a disease right so and you're super clouded because you have so many substances in your body so you have to go through detox and then you know you have to start basically learning who you are and then those tools and if it's not done properly then unfortunately like you said about your dad you know it really makes a person kind of end up deteriorating and going even worse. Saw it with him the later years in his life for sure. Yeah, because they prescribe you all these medications and you just lose all sense of emotion.

Right. And it's terrible. I'm not a fan of that, man. I'm a fan. One thing that we're a fan of is... Are you interested in coming on the Digital Social Hour podcast as a guest? Well, click the application link below in the description of this video.

We are always looking for cool stories, cool entrepreneurs to talk to you about business and life. Click the application link below. And here's the episode, guys. Mind, body and spirit. And, you know, we're really big on on working, actually working the trauma that you sustain, because I believe that addiction is not, is a symptom of an underlying psychological issue, right? So we work on that first. And alongside of that, we're working on your fitness, you know, and your spirituality. Powerful. Yeah. Yeah. That's something other places, they'll just give you a pill. mean you should see our gym yeah we have a full-blown gym we have full-blown commercial kitchen wow it's all it's

all top-notch stuff uh you know um and not and i'm and i will say that our program's not the program for everybody some people come in they hate it or they're not ready or or whatever but then on top of that i also hire the top-notch, and they go through our training, which has been proven 22 years of success. Wow. You know, and I believe that the Infinity Group, which is our management company, is the standard for the treatment industry today. Yeah. I mean, it sounds like it is, man. I've never heard of something like this, like a gym in the facility.

Yeah, exactly. Oh, yeah. It's awesome. Yeah. I mean, it sounds like it is, man. I've never heard of something like this, like a gym in the facility. Yeah, exactly. I mean, my first time as a guest on the show, you know, I got to obviously, you know, take a tour. And that's what blew my mind as well, because I totally believe in it's your mind, body, spirit. They're all connected. So they all got to be flowing in the same direction or else something is off. And walking into the gym, I'm like, this is wild. I know my rehab facility didn't even talk about fitness. It didn't have a full court basketball court. No, it didn't.

Sign me up, man. All Laker colors. Yeah, exactly. And so just little things like that are super important because, yes, you have to work on all of the emotions and things or the trauma that you're basically trying to kind of numb. So that's a heavy part of treatment. But then also being able to talk about nutrition and 30 minutes a day, move your body.

Like all that stuff is super important that I feel like kind of gets missed in. I can't speak about other treatments, but I know about the treatment that I was went to and it was never even talked about. Terrible. So how many rehab centers did you guys have to go through? Cause I see articles about Pete Davidson, you know, going to like five, 10 places. Sounds pretty hard to find a good one. So me personally, I went to one and I was, I was, I personally wasn't ready. And that's one of the things that I always kind of like, you know, make a strong point in is the individual themselves. They have to be ready to get well. So they have, because it's, it's, it's a simple program, but it's hard work.

Like that individual has to want it. And I obviously was not ready so I was I mean I was relapsing in treatment right which is insane looking back on it um I was definitely out of my mind but um when I came ready to actually do the work and and say I'm doing this um that's when I got it so it really is I, I feel like, based on individuals. Because I know for a lot of parents or a lot of, like, spouses, they want to send their loved one to treatment. And I always use the analogy, you can lead a horse to water,

but you can't make them drink. So there's, like, so many factors in in success rates and like how that kind of what works and what doesn't but i think that it is based on the individual yeah yeah for sure um i went to uh how many how many donna oh she stuck with you the whole time yeah that's awesome i i probably went to like eight treatment centers. And I went to the most bougie treatment centers. And I'll tell you, the very end, the last treatment center that I went to was the bottom of the barrel. It was court ordered. I got myself in some trouble.

And I was there for a year. It was not a nice rehab, but it was exactly what I needed at the time. Wow. And I took advantage of every piece that I could. And, and that was it. That was it for me. Eight places.

What do you think they are doing wrong? How do you think these places can improve overall? I mean, they need to check my pockets. The first, the first, the first six, I was high as f**k. Right.

And I was relapsing in mine. And she was relapsing in hers. So let's check the pockets. They're not strip searching you? Yeah, they weren't strip searching. That's for sure. I'd come in because I actually relapsed as a treatment owner. And I fell in the public eye and it was really – in my public eye.

And it was really embarrassing. And I kept showing up to rehab and they knew who I was. Wow. And so they would kind of give me like the red carpet treatment. And the last place, though, this lady, her name's Nancy Clark, and she won't mind me shouting her out. She didn't give me any red carpet treatment at all. And you needed that. I needed that, yeah.

Because I'd walk in and I'd have **** in my pocket. They wouldn't even search my pockets. And then I'm in the bathroom like shooting methamphetamines, **** of it they didn't search you or no wow i thought they were same with me yeah psychotic thinking i was working for the cia all kinds of awesome stuff they just see you as a number they don't even care about you no no yeah wow and i paid for my rehab out of my pocket. Yeah. Like, so the nerve of me, but I just was, I had put my, I had put myself in some pretty hot water. So I couldn't put that on my parents either. I love my parents.

They are my heroes. So I didn't want them to have to pay for my nonsense, essentially. And so I was paying out of my pocket yet i was like bringing into the facility and then wow doing um my thing and then i would be going into meetings and i'd be talking like a mile a minute like just craziness but that's like the insanity of like the disease you know so that's why i always say like you know it really is truly based on on the individual and that's also too um a big factor into you being successful in your sobriety yeah because they can only do so much they can guide you like you said they can't actually get you clean right it's on you so like what are their

success rates of these is there statistics on it i mean i could give you statistics on alcoholics anonymous is like five percent yeah five percent of the people that go into Alcoholics Anonymous stay sober for one year. Oh, that's it? Yeah. Wow. It's like the very, very small. It's rough. I mean, treatment centers, I will tell you, the longer you stay in treatment, pilots, if they get busted,

they have a five-year program that they have to follow. And if they get one relapse, they can never fly a plane again. Wow. And if they get one relapse, they can never fly a plane again. Wow. And their success rate is like 95% of pilots that go through that program succeed. Dang, that's high. So the truth is, is that the longer you stay in treatment,

the better your chances are. Now, you don't have to stay in crazy residential treatment for a year. It's a step-down process. You do the residential, then you do outpatient, and then you do sober living with once-a-week counseling, and you get drug tested regularly. And if you do that

for a year, it is 80%. That's pretty good. Which I always highly recommend because especially if you've clearly been struggling, that's why you're in rehab, you got to do a lot of work. So to go back into your so-called day-to-day life is, I think, not the best. And that's why it should be like the step down program just because uh you're gonna

have to do some you know your friends can't be the same ones that you were hanging out with right and you can't stay in that same circle because it's very easy to go to treatment and be like yes i have finally found god i got this and i'm gonna save my buddy over exactly exactly and then you leave and then it's like you see your buddy and then you know a couple hours later you're you're high yeah and you're like yeah i mean i remember dude i know 90 days clean bro i'm like it's so crazy because the fact that i can like it's amazing because i get to laugh at all my nonsense that I used to do. Yeah. Because now I've like, you know, stacked some years together.

When I was 23, I graduated college and got myself into trouble. So I had to turn myself in. And the judge was like, well, you know, you know, I'll let you walk and graduate. And then you're going to have to a week later come and turn yourself into county jail. I was like, okay. So I go to jail for three months and that's where I was going to like AA, but I was only going really to get out of my little like cell. And I remember thinking like, okay, I can do this.

I got this. Awesome. Then I get out three months later and within like seven hours. Seven hours. It took you that long? Because it usually was like two for me. Dang. And that's like crazy.

All good intentions until like they open that gate and I'm on my way out and I'm like, that's it. Yeah, exactly. Because it's all you know. Yeah, it's all I knew. You're used to it. Yeah, it was literally, I got addicted to crystal meth when I was 13 years old. 13? 13.

Dang, that's early. How did it get introduced to you? I was smoking weed already with some buddies, and my neighbor down the street was the weed dealer. And I went over to his house to buy some weed, and he was like, I'm all out. And he's like, but I do have some speed. And they called it speed back in the day. Speed. Yeah. Right? I was like, oh And he's like, but I do have some speed. And they called it speed back in the day. Speed. Yeah.

Right? I was like, oh, what's that? And he's like, it just makes you feel good and go up. And I was like, all right, let me try it. I remember I went home and I chalked up the line. I snorted. I never snorted anything in my life. I snorted the line and I was up for like three days and it was like the best.

I was like, why didn't somebody tell me about this sooner? And I was off and running for 10 years wow 10 years every day every day damn every day that's 13 to 23 and you met your wife during that time um no this one i'm i met her when i was sober and then she witnessed some of the most horrific relapses and she stuck with me and she walked through hell and she yelled and screamed at me and left me. And, um, yeah, that's awesome. I smoked some synthetic weed once I ended up in a ambulance. Oh, that's terrible. I almost died. I had like a seizure. I was in college. Wow. Yeah. It was

crazy, man. And I've never smoked weed since. I mean, I just can't do it I was in college. Wow. Yeah, it was crazy, man. I've never smoked weed since. I mean, I just can't do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that's scary. The guy was like, yo, I got this weed from Cali. We were in Jersey at the time. This shit's amazing. Oh, my God, dude.

Terrible. Yeah, no good. I couldn't even talk. Yeah, it was scary. I don't drink. I don't smoke. It's been like three years. Nice.

Which is rare in Vegas. Yeah, no, for yeah i know for sure everyone here does it yeah they drink smoke and do yeah and that's another thing too is like i think why we're so kind of like passionate about kind of this this movement obviously it's really close to chad because of his daughter and losing someone so close to you and kind of witnessing the fentanyl crisis that's going on. But it's also, I feel like it's really a positive impact for the younger generation. Like you don't have to try to like fit in by drinking or using what's around. You can still have a good time. You can still go out, but you don't have to think think that you need to i guess i need to have a drink or i guess maybe i'll smoke it's like it's okay not to for sure no or don't do it and just pass everybody up like financially

who i'm a huge fan of right now who well not right now i've been a fan of him for quite some time so i'm the youngest of all boys so sports was always big and i didn't get into like my nonsense until um later on in in college but um deon sanders so deon sanders and what he's doing at colorado amazing but what's awesome about him too is he's never picked up a drink and he's never picked up a drink in his entire life. I didn't know that. Yes, which is incredible. And clearly you have a massively successful athlete, dad, and finances.

He's doing pretty good too. He's doing very good. I think his son's making the most ever for a college quarterback. It's crazy. But I'm glad you said that because I used to not be able to talk to people unless i was drunk in college right like i was socially awkward i had to drink and took me a while to even just figure that out after i got sober how to like communicate for sure yeah i mean look at you now you have a podcast and obviously you're not doing anything to get on the mic yeah i'm I'm not drunk, not high. We were sober.

Is it? I found, though, that sometimes as introverted people, more introverted, because I feel like I'm totally socially awkward. At least I feel that way. We really crush it on these things. For some reason, dude, yeah, I've had on a lot of guests that are introverts too. Yeah. And they just crush it.

Yeah. It's weird. I mean, we're both introverts too yeah and they just crush it yeah it's weird i mean we're both intro can you imagine she's an introvert and she had to get up in front of a hundred thousand people live that is crazy you know yeah in a in a in a awkward outfit you know basically yeah yeah wrestle people and like it was. You must have been nervous, right? No, for sure. Of course, especially because I kind of was thrown into that whole experience,

which was for sure like right time, right place. God definitely opened up that door for me to walk into WWE. But yeah, for sure walking into Monday Night Raw or Friday Night SmackDown and I never wrestled a day in my life. I'm a field athlete. I like to stay on the ground. Soccer is my sport. That's what I played in college.

And so going into wrestling was like, wait, what? A suplex, huh? Even though I tried out and was going for the developmental contract, but then God had other plans for me and skip that because of the reality show that they just so happened. Total Divas was about to start filming. And then all of a sudden there was a curve ball and they wanted to fresh girls that knew nothing,

didn't know how to wrestle, didn't know the business. And then here I am. Wow. And I'm like, all right, everything happens for a reason right yeah i truly believe that yeah yeah so were you completely sober during that time the wwe days um

i was i actually i'd uh just gotten out of rehab on like maybe four or five weeks prior to my last like callback for wwe and it was like the physicality to see if you can even like handle, uh, the, the, what it takes to be inside the ring. Yeah. And I had met my now husband at that same time and I had relapsed right before that, uh, that tryout in front of my husband. Cause I, I've said this story on the, on the, yeah, it was in Vegas at a bachelor, a joined bachelor, bachelorette party for his best friend.

I was getting married. Oh, yeah, it's great. I literally met him, and then I didn't tell him that I was just out of rehab because that's not like who wants to, hi, nice to meet you. By the way, I'm a mess. That's not what you lead with. So we came out to Vegas, then once again off to the races. And then he's a smart man.

And right off the bat, he's like, you're an alcoholic. Called my mom. And my mom was like, oh, yeah, she is. Yeah, I know. It's wild. And then so basically he gave me the ultimatum, like, if you really want us to be together, you need to go back to Alcoholics Anonymous and start working on a program.

So with my tail between my legs, I called my previous sponsor and asked her if she would take me back. And then she said, well, you know the deal. And I said, yes, I do. And I did. And then I went balls to the wall into my last audition. And then that's when everything, when everything opened up for me. Bam.

What a story. Seriously, right? Yeah, that's crazy. So you met him in WWE? So I met him right before. So it was right when I started WWE. Wow. Tongue twister.

Yeah, it is. It kind of is. I started in 2013, and that was right at that time when Instagram basically became Instagram. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it was prior to Instagram even being on like Androids. It was only on Apple. No DMs yet. No like special thing.

No crazy filters like what we have now. And so I met him right before walking into a whole another realm wow yeah yeah i remember that instagram the blue layout oh yeah and then people like you would post those like weird little like filtered photos yeah i didn't get on it i'm older you got on late yeah i was late they already had dms and stories and all that when i got on yeah so he so he was like uh when i told him that i was about to embark on this journey of possibly going and becoming and that was this was just the developmental deal at the time he at first looked at me crazy thinking like why does she want to get punched in the face

um and then and i let him know just because if i had gotten the job that i would have to move to tampa because that's where their facility was yeah um and i didn't want to have somebody try this be like i love you don't go or something um but he wasn't he was like well if you really want to do this then um then i'll support you 100 so he would pack my lunches before i would go to my tryout. Wow, he packed your lunches? Oh, yeah. Damn.

Well, he's a really big nerd. Shout out to Jonathan. I love you. He was working at Blizzard at the time. Blizzard is a gaming. Yeah, I've heard of Blizzard. I used to be a gamer. Oh, my God.

My husband is a huge gamer. Okay, sick. And I say a big nerd. I don't mean that in any bad fashion. I feel like nerds are amazing. He's like this buffed out like model looking nerd. Yeah. Nerd is a compliment.

It is. Oh, yeah. From back then it wasn't. When I say it, I totally mean it in a compliment. So I always have to reiterate that I mean it in a compliment because I didn't marry him. But so he would be going to Blizzard and i would be going to my tryout so before we would leave you know he would pack my lunch for me and send me on my way yeah yeah how intense were those trials in the training because there's some nasty injuries insane the i remember

the tryout so they don't do them anymore but they and we were not called divas anymore um but they would do diva searches so they would go to all the major cities and um look for the next wwe diva and we were in los angeles and so they narrowed it down after callback callback they narrowed it down to i think like 15 of us so the first day you know we get into the ring and they have us start like doing forward rolls and and um running the ropes and i remember there was a couple girls that were like wait you want us to do what um we're out of here because they're like you know from los angeles yeah yeah exactly so for me it was everything that i was like wanting and missing in my life because i was an athlete for so long that

i was missing that competitiveness. You have to obviously handle all the physicality. Then you get to build a character and perform live in front of a live audience. And then you get to travel the world and do amazing things within the community. So my dad's a Vietnam veteran. And this is another thing why I really ended up wanting to partner with Chad and the Infinity Group is because my dad's a Vietnam veteran, and so our military is everything to me. In WWE, I got to go to Afghanistan twice to go visit our troops. And I feel like I always wanted to do something

because when the guys come back from war, they're kind of not well. And then they're kind of stuck, whether it's they're kind of stuck whether it's they're suffering from ptsd or substance abuse which a lot of them do because they're trying to numb whatever they saw or whatever they did and um chad and what his family have done you know they really they have three houses that are strictly for our veterans and i thought that was just like absolutely amazing so my dad i mean i take him right now to the va so the fact like that it's there's a facility out there for these guys and i get to be a part of it is everything like i got to go on a couple weeks back one of my first, uh, kind of touring the facilities and stuff.

I got to go to one of the houses and, uh, sit down are a different breed, that it's nice to be amongst other veterans. Because they kind of, you know, they all can relate to some degree, even if they're in different branches or whatnot. And I love that fact. So I think after that visit, that's when I was like, okay, where do I sign? Yeah, I love that. You guys must get a lot of veterans my cousin uh served in iraq and he had problems coming back man now he's in jail and it it sucks to see because i didn't realize it until i had a lot on veterans on the show like what they actually deal with yeah all the trauma and it just it's terrible yeah we have two houses that are specifically for mental health primary, which really works on the PTSD and the other mental health issues.

And then we have one, a bigger, a much bigger program that is substance use disorder is what they call it today, which would just be addiction treatment. Yeah. So, yeah. And then we're also contracted with the VA. Oh, nice. So we're actually part of the VA. So the VA, it's called the Community Care Network. So we're part of the Community Care Network for the VA.

That's cool. So any veteran can actually, that service connected, that is honorably discharged from the military, can go to the VA. They can get a consult, and then they can come to our. Now, if the VA has an open bed in their program, which they hardly ever do, that has to get filled first. But most of the time, the beds at the VA aren't filled, are fully filled. Right.

So then they refer them out to us. Interesting. I didn't know they were fully filled. That means there's a lot of them dealing with some stuff. Oh, yeah. Oh, for sure. Well, there's a lot of them dealing with some stuff Oh for sure Well there's also There's just not enough beds In the VA hospital

Because I mean Especially after war times Yeah These guys are coming back Messed up Messed up And there's not a lot of It's not really good

How they reintegrate people back into society Whether it's the Whether it's the military Or you know our prison system is both of them are, are lacking a big time in that area. For sure. Yeah.

Everyone I talk to from prison. Oh, for sure. It's like. It's the recidivism rate is 80%. 80% of people go back to prison. Yeah. It's a revolving war. Yeah.

It's, it's sad. And I think too, especially with our veterans, I think they're instilled in their head to like not ask for help or not talk about it because, you know, it's like get the job done strong, tough. Um,

and don't, yeah, exactly. Don't show emotion. So I think there's a lot of them that don't seek the help, uh, whether it's, they don't know where to go or what to do. And so I'm

like on a mission, I want to go to every single VA and talk to whomever is basically the yes man. So that way I can get these guys the help they need. And now partnering with them, it's like, we have the facility, we have the tools for them to go somewhere and, you know, get their life back. Yeah, that's awesome. So how many more beds can you accommodate right now for the veterans? Well, it's easy to grow. I have 80 beds in Hope by the Sea that we can accommodate for veterans. And then we have 24 in the two different mental health facilities, which it's actually not hard to grow those.

So, yeah. Yeah, I got a lot of veteran contacts. I'll introduce you guys. Okay, awesome. Hopefully you can fill those up. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's been a great episode, guys.

Anything you want to close off with or promote? Well, we want to definitely promote the Hopaholics podcast. Yeah, for sure. Of course. Yeah. And we really also want to promote the Infinity Group, which is the hub of seven different brands of alcohol treatment centers and mental health facilities. Nice.

And if anyone is listening and wants to, they don't have to even show their face for our Re out loud zoom meeting that is at 6 p.m pacific standard time every tuesday and it's in the link in our hopaholics ig or my personal ig that you can go and you know listen to other people if you're struggling nice yeah i'll put these links in the video for you guys. Oh, amazing. And where are your locations at? We're all in Southern California right now. And then we're opening up a place in hopefully San Antonio, Texas. Okay.

Nice. Yeah, if you're watching it, guys, reach out. Yeah, let's do it. All right. Thanks for coming on, guys. Great episode. Thanks for watching, as always. See you guys next time.